Cruising The Harbor

I don't know how many people follow Groupon, but I do! A friend of mine got me hooked on it and I have been following ever since. I finally made my first purchase last month and since we had BEAUTIFUL weather yesterday (83 degrees), we put it to use!  The Groupon was for a hour long boat rental in the harbor off Newport Beach/Balboa. I bought two, so we were able to combine them and be out for two hours.

We headed down a little earlier than our reservation as we knew the parking was going to be tough. With the weather this nice, it means the beaches get packed. Sure enough, we got one of the last few spots available at the beach.

We checked in at the booth and within 5 minutes, we were taken down to our boat. It was a small 4 seater, but perfect for our family of 4. With this Groupon, we could have upgraded to a bigger boat, but for today, this one was perfect. (In the future, if this comes up again, we will definitely buy again and do the upgrade and bring friends with us!) We were given a map of the harbor and told were we could/could not go, and off we went. It was so nice. The weather was perfect, the ride was perfect, and the scenery was perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better day! To top it off, we even got to see a few sea lions swimming along side of us as well as a pair of dolphins. Like I said before, it was PERFECT!!!!!

So here are some pictures from our day:

Captain Dan:

The Harbor:

Unfortunately, the dolphins wouldn't sit still for me, but I did get a glimpse of them:

I took this one for my Stepmom as she use to work for OCC:

The Wild Goose was John Wayne's old boat and my Father In-law headed up refurbishing this boat in the 90s.

 
Another shot of the Wild Goose. Before John Wayne owned it, it was a WWII minesweeper.

My little dude got to take the wheel:

This sea lion wouldn't stop and pose for me either!

My little dude up on the pier after our ride: