Island Adventure

This year, for our annual girls reunion weekend, we decided to go on an adventure to the Channel Islands, about 20 miles off the shores of Ventura. My girlfriends are like family to me so I always look forward to spending time together, reminiscing about our college days, planning weddings, laughing, crying, celebrating successes, and guzzling champagne over our failures. 

I have to say that visiting Santa Cruz Island together was the perfect getaway. There's nothing quite like taking some time away from regular life to breathe in fresh ocean air, move your body, and explore a new natural place. This trip was especially remarkable because for the very first time I saw gray whales and dolphins with my own eyes in real life! It was the most amazing site to see and photos don't do it any justice!

No one got sick on the boat ride over to the islands! Hooray!

There were about 5 gray whales traveling together to Baja Mexico. We were very lucky to catch them along their journey and they definitely gave us a nice show with water spouts and lots of tail. 

This was the one and only landing dock for our boat. SO TINY! 

Had we not ditched our tour guide, it would have been an hour before we saw this incredible view. Sorry, Carol! 

We saw lots of red foxes playing and running around!

We thought this was sand from far away, but up close we found out it was a form of limestone or calcium carbonate (chalk!) so we used it as a photo op!

These dolphins were amazing. There must have been at least 1500 dolphins surrounding the boat. They loved coming up next to the boat to "race". All I could do was stare in awe at the magic of these lively and joyful creatures as they soared in and out of the water in twos and threes. Pure magic.  

I love you, girls!