Melody surprised me with a Valentine’s gift of whale watching at Dana Point. There were supposedly a lot of whale activity, but the day was fruitless for us. We were only able to see the sea lions and common dolphin, nothing out of the ordinary. But, the trip was interesting overall, which leaves me intrigued to go back. We started off the day, with an early morning to drive the 1+ hours down to southern Orange county. I wanted to take the Rolleiflex out to possibly get some exposures that I could develop. I always wanted to get a cool view of the viewfinder in the field, so I “caught” Melody looking at the boats.

I also got her to posed at for me at the dock.

We left Dana Point harbor with some interesting clouds, which were somewhat ominous all day. But we learned that the storms from yesterday made the water extremely murky and hard to judge where the sea creatures were. Also the previous day had a few whale sightings which made me a little more optimistic for the day.

The extremely hard to photograph common dolphins. It was during their feeding times so there was no playful behavior for interesting photographs. Instead this is all they did around the boat.

Melody and other passengers started to feel the effects of sea legs disorientation, yes I tried to depict it in this picture which looks kind of weird.

Another view of Dana Point.

Our captain of the ship.

Melody finally started to feel better during the last thirty minutes of our voyage, which she then mustered the courage to get up to the bow of the ship.

The sea lions that are always lounging around, not very exciting but an interesting thing to see.

Later I told Melody we should go eat at this restaurant in Seal Beach called “Secret Spot.” It is a healthy foods place which has vegetarian and vegan foods.