Whales

Growing up, I completely took where I live for granted. All I wanted was out of here. I counted down the moments until I could go somewhere that wasn't here. And I did. For an entire year before coming home. Since then, I've realized how lucky I am to live here. It is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.

We have the beach, the river, the huge trees, and the mountains. On Monday, I spent my day at the beach. 

We hiked down to that little cove in the picture and parked it for the afternoon. It was sheltered from the wind and basically perfect weather.

The cows on the hillside stared at us. They were probably wondering what us crazy kids were doing. We had the entire beach to ourselves.

Not two minutes after being there, my friend pointed out a whale dancing in the waves about 500 feet from us. It was pure magic. There ended up being 7 of them and they were feeding. They would stick their huge mouths in the air and eat before returning to the sea. I soaked it all in without technology because to bring out a cellphone to take pictures in that moment felt incredibly wrong.

My friends and I finally tore ourselves away from watching them dance. We sat and talked and laughed.

We also listened to some live music.

The entire day felt like pure magic. It felt like something out of a fairy tale. After some exploring down the beach, we finally hiked back up to the parking lot to get a better view of the sunset.

I have watched the sun set more this week than I have in a very, very long time. It is better than a lot of things in life. 

I had never experienced seeing whales in real life before, so Monday was amazing. Yesterday, I got to spend more time with this little one, so it's safe to say that I've been having some pretty good days.

Have you ever seen whales??