Our whale watching excursion was slated to last five to six hours. I wasn't quite sure if my girls' thrill meter would last the entire time, but it's not like the boat was going to let them off early. We headed down to the pier a little early and noticed a line of people already waiting to board the Island Explorer 3. We met Tyson (the gopher, jack-of-all-trades new guy) first who began to give safety instructions. Captain Mike took over our instruction and then directed us toward the boat where we would meet Captain Carl. The girls were pretty thrilled to be under way. Not too long after boarding and heading up to the top deck, Misha spotted a seal--our first "wildlife" spotting of the day. We motored out of the harbor and marveled at the beauty surrounding us. It was a little chilly with the breeze, but there were plenty of spots to stay out of the wind.
Our next encounter with wildlife was a Steller Sea Lion followed up shortly thereafter by four or five Dall's Porpoises. They looked like mini orcas. Actually it was difficult to get a good picture of them because they swam close to the surface and when they jumped out of the water, they made a pretty good splash.
It took a while for us to see the next big guy, and he was swimming off the shores of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Split Fin, a humpback whale, and yes that is the name he is known by, (apparently all of the whales are documented and named and can be identified by those in the know) swam solo of the island. We watched him swim for quite some time. I tried to get a good shot but he was swimming in fairly shallow water (for him) and never made a really great dive with the tell-tale fluke (tail) wave. I got one fairly decent shot of his fluke and another of his spray (which we were told has quite an awful smell if you happen to get misted). It was kind of crazy, everyone on board would wait for Split Fin to surface, someone would yell out, "There he is!", and by the time you had found him and focused, he was mostly gone. Still, pretty exciting.
We were able to continue in the Canadian waters down to Victoria, BC. We were right off the shore when a pod of orcas were spotted swimming right along the shore line. Can you imagine looking out your living room window and seeing whales on a regular basis? We hung around watching this pod for at least 45 minutes as they swam in the harbor. Chris spotted two bald eagles as well. And there was a seal sunning himself.
After another 45 minutes watching the orcas, we took a right around Discovery Island and began a return trip back to Anarcortes. Some of us were a little more tired than others, and another (aka Kristen) repeatedly told me she was ready to go home. Chris and I were surprised that the girls were as enthused as they were all day long, we thought for sure they'd poop out on us after two hours.
As we neared the shore, we had an Australian passenger take a family picture of us. It was just a little bit windy. Amy and I had some major hair malfunctions.
We were happy to disembark and because we took over six hours on our tour, we had to hurry to the car to begin the hour and a half drive to meet up with Grandma, Grandpa and the Burkmans at Coho Restaurant. The girls as usual, were thrilled to see their grandparents and Kristen was sure to seat herself between the two of them at dinner. It was great to see Sam and Lori as well. I think it was a first time for all but Chris in meeting their little guy Simon.