Today we decided to do some “crabbing,” a popular activity here on the Oregon Coast. There is a long dock here at the resort, dedicated to crabbers. So we got our ring, attached some raw chicken and tossed it in the ocean. Every 5-10 minutes you pull it up and hope you get some dungeness crabs. There are always a lot of crabs in the net, but most are red rock crabs, not the greatest eating, but still lots of fun and excitement every time you pull up the crab trap!

The talk of the day though, was the pod of killer whales who made their way through the inner harbor here in Newport. It had the town in a tizzy, that’s for sure! All the locals were in shock… one guy told us that he’d been here twenty nine years, and no whale had ever been in the harbor, let alone a whole pod of orcas!

The whales were right off the break water, less than 30 feet from us on the crab dock! They were obviously hunting, looking for the seals that are all over the harbor. I tell you, it was really amazing to see them so close. I’ve been to orca shows, but nothing comes close to the experience of seeing them “in the wild” so close, you could almost touch them.

After they moved off down the harbor, we came back to the room, and were getting ready to go for dinner, when the pod came back into sight, moving back towards the harbor exit! They smacked their tails on the water, breached and rolled and came so very close to our deck it was unreal! Totally fascinating to see whales, just unreal.

After the “show,” we headed to dinner and our waitress wanted to know if we’d seen the whales! She talked about what an honor it was to see them, how she’d lived here all her life and never seen a whale in the harbor. It was a really special day, that’s for sure!