Vacation Day 5 - whale watching

Stephen Lippold drove us up to Orange County (The OC) for some whale watching of Newport Beach. We had a wonderful time and was well worth the early wake up (6am) and 2 hour drive north.  About a third of the trip was along Hwy 1 the 'pacific coast highway'. While we didn't see any whales, we did see a couple of small pods of Pacific bottle-nosed dolphins. They were very playful and our captain let them play around the boat for about an hour. It was a fantastic day and incredible chance to see nature in action. A real once in a lifetime experience.