Oh wow, a whale! I heard my wife exclaiming outside the motel room. I wondered where on earth she was and what kind of prank she was pulling as her voice drifted in through a window. I lay in a semi-conscious state in the room, trying to catch a few more winks after our late night journey down the Oregon coast. The kids voices chimed in with hers, back behind our motel room somewhere, exclaiming about their first sitings of whales – out there. Startling awake, I realized that they were talking about actual whales, and were calling me to get out there before I missed them – no kidding involved!
A good thing I moved too, because I had never seen anything like that in my entire life. I certainly never expected to be so lucky on this jaunt we mountain people from Montana had taken to the Oregon coast. After I stumbled from the motel room, down the hall and around the building, to my astonishment, there it was. As big as life and to our complete amazement, right
off the rocky shore below the motel we were staying at in Seaside, Oregon, a couple of whales were working their way along within close view of the shore. To local folks and to others that...