orcas!
Yesterday was freakin' amazing. Such a long day but so worth it. Me and Rose convinced Kylan to come with us to the San Juans so I didn't even have to drive and it was so cool. We saaw whales!
We got all our plans set Friday, made our reservations with a kayak tour company, made ourselves monster sandwiches and bought tons of trail mix and snacks. Then Saturday morning, we left the house at 6:45 to drive up to the ferry at Anacortes. Even the ferry ride was beautiful- dark water and green mountain islands with maybe one or two houses on them and the Olympic Mountains in the background. When I was younger, I really liked the book Island of the Blue Dolphins. After that ferry ride, I could finally picture the island it takes place on.
We got into Friday Harbor at 10 and kind of wandered around until 11 when the tour company was going to pick us up. We had coffee at this crazy little shop that was only 3 feet wide all the way back and the crazy hippy lady who owned us was told us that she was going to name it Brokeback Coffee because it was "such a small space." It made so little sense that even Kylan just laughed politely and backed out of the store. It was good coffee though.
All the kayaks were two person ones which worried me a little bit because the last time I was in a two person kayak it was kind of a disaster. We kept hitting each other's paddles and generally being annoying. But these were really sweet kayaks, much bigger and more comfortable with rudders and spray skirts and space to put our bags. We spent the first part of the trip kind of tooling along the shore looking at bald eagles, falcons, seals, porpoises, and sea otters. Which was cool, but I was getting really impatient. I wanted to see whales!
But right before we went into lunch, one of the guides spotted a ton of boats kind of circling a spot in the water so we all started paddling closer. That's when we saw dorsal fins. Tons and tons of orca whales went by, right past us. Boats aren't allowed to get too close to the whales because it disterbs them and they need to concentrate on eating massive amounts of salmon. But we were close enough to hear the massive pffft sound as they came up and expelled all the water from their lungs, and we could clearly see the eyes of the one who stuck his head up above the water to look at us for a while. Some of them were just crusing along the surface and some of them would dive down for a really long time before they'd come back up. Sometimes we'd see the little finds of the young ones travelling with their moms. They move fast so we didn't try to stay with them but watching them pass was impressive enough.
When that pod finally passed we headed into lunch and man, did I make myself a good sandwich. I tried to go swimming but the water was too cold even for me. After lunch 10 or 15 stragglers passed us, most of these whales were cruising along the surface so we got a good look at them. It was almost impossible to take a clear picture though, so I'm just going to have to remember. At the end of the afternoon, a lot of the moterized boats had gone in for the day so it felt much more like just us and the whales.
After the tour people dropped us back off in Friday Harbor, we decided to see the new Pirates movie and take the 10 PM ferry back. I really liked the movie, but I was so tired. We didn't get home until 2:30 AM, but it was worth it. It was a long day, and an expensive day but I'm making money this summer and when else am I going to kayak with whales?
We got all our plans set Friday, made our reservations with a kayak tour company, made ourselves monster sandwiches and bought tons of trail mix and snacks. Then Saturday morning, we left the house at 6:45 to drive up to the ferry at Anacortes. Even the ferry ride was beautiful- dark water and green mountain islands with maybe one or two houses on them and the Olympic Mountains in the background. When I was younger, I really liked the book Island of the Blue Dolphins. After that ferry ride, I could finally picture the island it takes place on.
We got into Friday Harbor at 10 and kind of wandered around until 11 when the tour company was going to pick us up. We had coffee at this crazy little shop that was only 3 feet wide all the way back and the crazy hippy lady who owned us was told us that she was going to name it Brokeback Coffee because it was "such a small space." It made so little sense that even Kylan just laughed politely and backed out of the store. It was good coffee though.
All the kayaks were two person ones which worried me a little bit because the last time I was in a two person kayak it was kind of a disaster. We kept hitting each other's paddles and generally being annoying. But these were really sweet kayaks, much bigger and more comfortable with rudders and spray skirts and space to put our bags. We spent the first part of the trip kind of tooling along the shore looking at bald eagles, falcons, seals, porpoises, and sea otters. Which was cool, but I was getting really impatient. I wanted to see whales!
But right before we went into lunch, one of the guides spotted a ton of boats kind of circling a spot in the water so we all started paddling closer. That's when we saw dorsal fins. Tons and tons of orca whales went by, right past us. Boats aren't allowed to get too close to the whales because it disterbs them and they need to concentrate on eating massive amounts of salmon. But we were close enough to hear the massive pffft sound as they came up and expelled all the water from their lungs, and we could clearly see the eyes of the one who stuck his head up above the water to look at us for a while. Some of them were just crusing along the surface and some of them would dive down for a really long time before they'd come back up. Sometimes we'd see the little finds of the young ones travelling with their moms. They move fast so we didn't try to stay with them but watching them pass was impressive enough.
When that pod finally passed we headed into lunch and man, did I make myself a good sandwich. I tried to go swimming but the water was too cold even for me. After lunch 10 or 15 stragglers passed us, most of these whales were cruising along the surface so we got a good look at them. It was almost impossible to take a clear picture though, so I'm just going to have to remember. At the end of the afternoon, a lot of the moterized boats had gone in for the day so it felt much more like just us and the whales.
After the tour people dropped us back off in Friday Harbor, we decided to see the new Pirates movie and take the 10 PM ferry back. I really liked the movie, but I was so tired. We didn't get home until 2:30 AM, but it was worth it. It was a long day, and an expensive day but I'm making money this summer and when else am I going to kayak with whales?
posted by influx @ 5:16 PM
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