Day 17 morning

Left the hotel by 9:30. Yay! Much easier than packing up a tent. First stop was Depoe Bay, just a few miles down the road. My parents took me there when I was younger, and all I remember is the candy shop with the taffy-pulling machine in the window. We found out soon, though, that Depoe Bay is prime whale-watching territory. While walking on the rocks at the waterfront, we saw several blowspouts, arched backs in the water, and a couple of tail fins, all within two or three hundred yards of the shore. It was amazing! I’d never seen a whale like that before. I took a couple of family shots, and then Lily decided to take not just one, but two face-plants onto the sharp rocks. Poor baby girl had a scraped nose, cheek, and forehead now! Not exactly the souvenirs we wanted her to have.

When we crossed the street from the waterfront to the shops, a charter boat company asked if we’d like to go whale-watching. It wasn’t expensive per se, but eight people adds up, so I was interested but leaning towards a no. Then a man came out from the office, looked at all of our kids, and offered to let all of them go for free if we bought two adult tickets. Holy cow! How could we say no to that?

So we headed out on an hour-long cruise with about 12-13 other people. The water was fairly calm, so no seasickness issues at all. The three or four gray whales in the bay were very active, and we saw one break the surface probably every three or four minutes at least. It was awe-inspiring, truly remarkable, just beyond words. At one point, the whale was swimming at the surface just twenty or thirty yards away from the boat. It was, well, wow. Just wow. Today is our ten-year wedding anniversary, and I really think this was one of the best presents I’ve ever gotten.

After finding a whale magnet, we stopped at Devil’s Punchbowl, which is surprisingly tame at low tide. It’s geologically interesting, yes, but high tide is when the waves explode into the bowl and churn the water like a washing machine. Unfortunately, we didn’t have another four hours to wait until high tide, so the kids were unimpressed. Back into the car!

This time, we put in a movie, and we’ll drive until we get to Honeyman State Park just outside of Florence. There are sand dunes there that seem to go for miles, and I think the kids will have a lot of fun. All of the stress from earlier this week seems to have just melted away, and at this moment I am blissfully happy.