Whale watching 6/7/07

My parents came to visit for Valerie's graduation. We all went whale watching at the San Juan Islands while they were with us. Kelly and I took the kids four years ago when we vacationed up here and that was awesome but this time was truly incredible! Our crew said it doesn't get much better than that.

Left home at 6:30 a.m. and drove 2 1/2 hours to Port Angeles to catch the ferry to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island.

After an hour on the ferry we arrived at Friday Harbor around 10:30 a.m. and picked up our tickets.
Ate sandwiches we had packed at a seaside park and hung out until we had to be on the boat at noon.Kelly and my dad saw this guy by the dock.

We headed out to sea for about 40 minutes to find the place where the Orcas were being seen.

A lighthouse on one of the islands we passed.

A mother, J17 Princess Angeline, and daughter, J28 Polaris. You can tell the Orcas apart by the size and shape of their dorsal fin and the saddle patch behind it.

There are 3 resident pods of Orcas in this area, J, K and L. We saw whales from J pod. This is J28 Polaris.

Slapping the water with their fins. This behavior helps them herd the salmon that they eat. We were able to stay with the whales for over an hour as they were feeding. The land seen in the background is Canada.

A picture of an Orca breaching that looks about like what we saw. Unfortunately we weren't able to get any of our own pictures of this. It all happened too fast for our cameras.

Harbor seals sunning on a small island.

Bald eagle. There were 2 of them eating a fish on this island.

Eagle nest. There is an eagle to the right of the nest but it is very hard to see.

Captain Pete. He says he has the best job in the world and he has a corner office with a window.

After the tour we drove across the island (7 miles) to Lime Kiln Sate Park to see this lighthouse. They see the whales from here nearly every day but just for the short time it takes them to pass.

Fish and chips at The Hungry Clam. Yum!

On the ferry back to Port Angeles I saw what appeared to be a house out in the water. Upon closer inspection we learned it was a house being pulled by a tug boat (behind the house in the photo). Must have been moving it to an island.

What a great trip!