This is Part 1 of my USA trip. Click here for Part
2 or Part 3
May 2005- I flew into LAX
with my girlfriend from a stopover in Fiji, rented a car and drove straight out
to my hotel, the Anabella, out in Anaheim, next to Disneyland. It was my first
time both driving on the right hand side of the road and on LA's six lane three
story high freeways... luckily I was too jet lagged and hung over from the flight
to have the energy to panic... We did the theme park/ Hollywood thing for a
few days then drove down the to Newport Beach, just in time to catch the sunset.
I'd
hoped to get a surf in, but the waves were a little on the small side and the
water looked a bit cold and murky, so I didn't bother. Instead we walked past
the baywatch style lifeguard huts towards Newport Pier.
Newport
Sunset
|
The pier was next to the lifeguard HQ, which had sandbanked
itself against the coming king tide, which threatened to swamp the building. Around
the pier a handful of fisherman were taking in a good catch. We went over to see
what they were bringing in when all of a sudden they started yelling to each otherand
pointing out to sea, where a black shape had surfaced above the water.
Whale
off Newport Beach
|
At
first we thought they were pointing out a seal, but after it blew a watersprout
a few feet into the air we knew it was a whale, infact a small grey whale, only
about a hundred and fifty feet from the shore. We talked to a lifeguard who
said the whale had come in close to shore to try to scrape off the barnacles on
its skin by rubbing itself on the shallow sandy bottom. We watched, totally amazed,
as the whale spent a good ten minutes swimming along the shoreline in the fading
light, before swimming back out to sea.
Newport
Pier
|
After the whale sighting we walked back to Newport Pier
and visited the restaurant right on its tip, where we had a delicious meal of
seafood chowder and fish and chips. The picture below was taken just as the light
disappeared and looks north towards Huntington beach, one of the most popular
in Orange County. After dinner we walked back to the car, careful to use the
roads as the beach had a curfew after dark!
