Whales, Bonfires, Sunsets, and More Karaoke!

Friday of Girls' Week, in my opinion, was the most fun! We spent the morning snoozing and eating breakfast, enjoying our amazing ocean view. Then we took a walk down to the Marina to go on our own private whale watching tour! It was seriously SO much fun! We went out on one of those rubber Zodiac-style boats and it was amazing! It was just the five of us and the boat captain, and I think everyone would agree it was a highlight of our trip.

We did see a whale or two, but that wasn't the best part. We were out for a little more than an hour, and it was REALLY windy that day, so riding the boat was a bit like riding a rollercoaster. Janna and I sat up front while we headed out to sea, and sitting by her was amazing--she was laughing and laughing and screaming and laughing, having the time of her life. :) It made me laugh just to experience it with her. It was a lot of fun. Because of the wind and the waves, it was hard to see the whales, but we did see the little grey whale's back. We also saw a puffin, which was pretty cool. I think our captain got a kick out of us, and also felt a little bad that we weren't having tons of luck seeing whales, so he offered to let us all drive the boat! I think everyone except Audri took him up on that offer, and it was SO much fun! He kept us out about twenty minutes longer than we paid for--he was enjoying how much fun we were having. :)

I TOLD you it was windy! :)

This was Jan's face the ENTIRE time. :)

After our tour, we headed back to throw together some lunch (our meals were amazing--I love being friends with girls who are such awesome cooks and sharing our talents!) and play a game for a little bit, then we headed out for some shopping. Depoe Bay is the typical little touristy beach town, with lots of souvenir shops and cute little places up and down the main street. We split up a little and found some fun things, then met back up at our house a few hours later.

We changed and packed up a cooler and headed out to find a sandy beach. Just a few minutes down the road, we came upon EXACTLY what we were looking for! We played in the waves, took pictures (SHOCKER.), built a bonfire, roasted fancy hot dogs, made s'mores, and watched the sunset on the beach. It was an amazing way to spend the evening with some of my favorite girls. :)

When we all decided we were freezing, we packed up our stuff, found someone to take over our bonfire so we didn't have to put it out, and headed back to our house. Then we were off for our final adventure of the night--real karaoke at a karaoke bar. Audri has a list of 30 things she wants to do while she's 30, and one of them was to sing karaoke at a karaoke bar. When we were on our walk the night before, we realized that just a few blocks down from our house there was an actual karaoke bar, so we had to knock that one off her list together! It was a blast. Some of these lovely ladies had never even been IN a bar before, so that was fun. :) We sang for a couple hours then headed home and literally fell into bed...but not before chatting for awhile, as usual.