TL;DR: If you’re going to the Oregon coast and want to see whales, head to Depoe Bay and book a tour with Gary from Whale’s Tail Charters. You won’t regret it.

Whenever you do a whale watching tour, there’s always the standard disclaimer about how you may not actually see a whale. After all, you can’t predict what a wild creature will do–even in Depoe Bay, Oregon–the (self-proclaimed?) whale watching capital of the Oregon coast.

And, so, there I was, halfway through an hour-long whale watching boat ride with Whale’s Tail Charters, when I started telling myself that maybe today won’t be a whale sighting day. We’d seemingly had a few close calls, where I’d get my hopes up, but then there was no whale in sight.

Side note: It reminded me of the time I attended an “Oprah” taping. While you wait, they show clips from previous episodes of Oprah’s Favorite Things. As you stand there, you think, “maybe today’s episode will be Oprah’s Favorite Things!” Reality hit me hard that day. When the show started, it was about resilience after a tragedy.

Anyway. Our boat captain Gary has been working on the ocean his whole life, and when a few of the other whale watching boats gave up and left the area where we’d been floating for a few minutes, Gary stayed. In the distance, I saw a spout of water shoot from the surface. A whale was nearby! I scanned the horizon, hoping the whale would come back.

And that’s when I experienced National Geographic in real life:

(Turn down your volume)

Pretty incredible, right?