Looking Back: Completely Surrounded by Dolphins

Man, it's been a while since I've posted!!! This is from towards the end of last year.

For our anniversary weekend we stayed in a place in Laguna Hills in Orange County. The first night we were there, we went to a place that's been mentioned on The Woody Show, Sargent Pepperoini's.

You may have figured out from thier name, it's a Beatles themed pizza place. Beatles and Beatles-adjacent music, artwork, and a Beatles pinball machine, which of course I played several times.

One thing that is often mentioned on The Woody Show when discussing the place is the pin wheels. They are smallish sized little pizzas, without much sauce. Had to try them, and they are good!!!

Of course, we had to have a pizza, too. Also good, but I think I'd fill up on the pin wheels!!! After we ate, we went to a nearby theater and watched Dune, which gives you an idea about when this took place!!!

Didn't have much planned for our time, but on the second day, we went down to Dana Point Harbor and went on a whale watching boat.

It was gray and overcast, and the ocean was fairly flat.

Something they didn't tell us when we were signing up, there haven't been a lot of whale sightings this year. The reason hypothesized by the boats' marine biologist is that we have a huge backlog of freighters offshore waiting their turn to get unloaded, and if they are going to have any power onboard, they have to have the engine going.

So, all the cargo ships are making all this racket, and she thought that the whales are probably heading farther away from shore to avoid it. Makes sense.

So we didn't see whale one, but the captain spotted a pod of dolphins feeding.

And what a pod it was!!! The marine biologist estimated it was probably 700+ dolphins!!!

We were in the midst of the pod for probably close to an hour, and got to see a lot of dolphins!!!

We also saw a sun fish, and of course there were sea lions on the bouys on the way back.

Afterwards we went to a Mexican restaurant for a big lunch, which was pretty much the last we ate that day.

Headed home the next day, but I was looking for something to do on the way. Looking at the map of the shoreline, I came across a listing for "pirate tower".

Well, I'm something of a pirate myself!!! I've gotta go check it out!!! Sure enough, there's a tower right next to the cliff. Apparently it was made as a beach access stairway back in the 20's or 30's. It's closed off now, but it's a great visual!!!

It was a great little getaway!!!