Washington Trip

My best friend of 14 years got married in September so Mom and I flew to WA for the wedding. The wedding was beautiful and so was the bride. :)

While we were there Mom and I decided to go whale watching. We took the ferry boat from Anacortes, WA to San Juan Island. Neither of us had ever taken a ferry before so that was pretty fun too.

We did some research before hand and decided to do a charter boat instead of a cruise ship or larger boat. We went with Maya's Westside Charters and Captain Jim. There were a total of 8 of us on the boat (including the captain).

First we saw an eagle and some harbor seals sunning themselves then Captain Jim was on the radio getting the coordinates for a humpback whale.

The humpback whale was sleeping so all we got to see of her was her fin when she came up for air, then she'd go back down for 5 minutes then come up again. Still pretty cool.

Next it was off to find some orcas. They told us to watch for fins. I think I heard them before I saw them though. You'd hear a slap on the water or hear them as they exhaled. The first fin I saw was kind of surreal to me and I think I had a jaws moment lol I could picture a shark coming out of the water but thankfully it was orcas instead.

This boat came up while we were watching and I was amazed how many people they crammed onto it. I'm so glad we decided on a smaller boat.

The orcas were hunting fish when we were there and they were "porpoising" (see picture above). It was a blast to watch and amazing that they can swim so close together.

While they were hunting, Captain Jim put some hydrophones in the water and we could hear the whales talking to each other. You hear the splashing and them talking to each other in movies or youtube but it's nothing compared to in person. There are no words to describe it, it was just beautiful.

Captain Jim, Mom, Jeanne and me

Captain Jim is a retired school teacher, he was so informative and turns out he's a photographer too! He takes some amazing pictures. He made sure everyone had a good time and that he got to visit with everyone and get to know us. Jeanne was a treat for us. She is a friend of Captain Jim's and she studies the whales. She knew just by looking at the tip of a fin which whale it was and it's history. The stories she told!! I was eating out of the palm of her hand :) If you like whales and/or beautiful pictures check out Jeanne's blog.