Whale watching on the Salish Sea

The last day we were in town we went on a whale watching tour with San Juan Excursions:

Leaving Friday Harbor

 

While cruising out into the Salish we passed so many beautiful homes. I was talking with one of the stewards and she was telling me all about how on some of the islands there are no cars at all and the trash ferry only comes once a week. Most of the homes don't even have electricity (all the fancy ones do we are talking about the original locals) She even told us a joke: That you either have 3 houses or 3 jobs in San Juan. A lot of the really really rich guys (CEO of Oakleys, Google, etc.) have vacation homes here. Sometimes even more than one.

A shot of the Cattle Point Lighthouse that we hiked to the day before.

 

And then... we got really lucky and found a transient pod of orcas!

There were 7 of them total 4 adults and 3 babies. They were super active and our guides kept talking about how lucky we were because the day before they couldn't find any all day. Note: If you do go on a whale watching tour and you don't see any whales most places give you a rain check and you get to go on another cruise to try again! It's good advice to plan a tour at the beginning of your trip not at the end like us. Thankfully, we got to see whales but it would have sucked leaving with a rain check and not know when we were going back.

There were several other boats in the water and we were all watching these guys. They played and played for our entire 3 hour trip. It's against the law to be within 200ft of them but sometimes they swim close to you and you have to turn off your engines. I was excited they swam closer because I got a lot of really good close ups. I want to edit these but I still have no idea how to use photoshop.

Seeing them jump all the way out of the water was my favorite. I asked how much they weighed... eight TONS! That's a lot of power being used right there.

 

 

It was an amazing way to end our trip. I learned so much about whales from our guides which were terrific. We went out with San Juan Excursions and you can check out all their pictures from the day we went out HERE. Ignore the terrible picture of me on there. I blame the camera.

 

Now time for me to state some facts. DO NOT go to any Sea worlds or places that have whales in captivity. These whales are endangered and they aren't supposed to be doing tricks in a big fishbowl they should be in the oceans living out their lives. It was disgusting to learn how these businesses treat the animals and how they lie and bribe people to keep them in captivity. They are supposed to be rehabilitating injured whales but they never allow the whale to be released. It's a lot of terrible information that you can read about here. Please don't support these businesses by giving them money. If you want to see a whale, go see them in the wild. It doesn't even compare to Sea world and it is way better to see them jumping of their own free will. Right now I am hoping that Lolita can be FREED from the Miami Seaquarium. You can follow the group on Facebook here. Her family is a resident pod in the San Juans where we were! Lolita needs to come home and she needs our help! They also post about different whales and issues that have come up all the time. Educate yourself people...this stupid crap has got to stop.

 

That pretty much wraps up our trip to the San Juans. I highly suggest this vacation spot to everyone and I want to go back again one day and explore the other islands.

The San Juan Islands

Back in early May the hubs and I took a little weekend trip to the San Juan Islands. To give you a little info about this area it is in northern Washington and located directly across from Victoria, B.C. You have to take a Ferry from Anacortes, WA and when you arrive in Friday Harbor you literally feel like you have stepped back in time.



You can hop islands with free ferry trips but we just stayed on San Juan Island this time. I did want to go to Orcas but the ferry times didn't work out with us and we really wanted to take our time exploring our island this trip. We took our car with us on drove around the entire Island (even getting lost a few times) but as you can see it wasn't tons of ground to cover.

Here are some highlights:

We stayed in Friday Harbor which is a tiny town with no chain restaurants or big stores. There were 3 gas stations on the entire island 2 of them being in Friday Harbor. (They were all Shell stations too. Odd) It was so nice to disconnect from the city life for a few days... and it made me miss that slow easy island/country life that we grew up with. Fun Fact: Shaw Island is home to the Our Lady of the Rock Benedictine monastery and has no stores or eateries on it's 10 mile area.

Friday Harbor

 

The Whale Museum

The museum was really neat and when you arrive you get a Whale Card (that you can find on my Instagram) which has your whale that is a part of the resident pods that live around the islands. I got Muncher. How appropriate.

 

After we finished up at the museum we started driving around the island.

It was all rolling island farm land. Such a weird combo but it was so stinking pretty.

 

Our first stop was Cattle Point. The Cattle Point Lighthouse is a short hike away and I'm obsessed with Lighthouses so we decided it was time to scale some cliffs.We both forgot our tennis shoes (along with jackets, my makeup, and Chad didn't bring any pants - it was 50 degrees the entire time mind you) but that wasn't going to stop us. HA!

You see that high hill/cliff. Yea I climbed up that, in Toms, WITHOUT falling! I am by far the clumsiest person... I was so proud I didn't twist an ankle.

I hope you enjoyed that photo shoot. Chad knows to take 3 pictures at once for 3 different poses so that you have enough choices. Choices people. It's all about choices!  

 

 

Wanna know how Cattle Point got it's name? Back in the old days the ships would come in with cattle and instead of pulling into the harbor to dock the boat they would get close to the shore and push the cattle off of the boat into the water. The shore was so shallow that the cows would safely swim to shore at the lighthouse. Viola! Cattle Point. Sad news is that it was perfectly normal to lose a cow or two to a whale during this process!

Walking back to our car through a field of flowers.

 

Then we went to Roche Harbor where Theodor Roosevelt stayed in the 1900's and we saw his signature in the hotel guestbook inside the Hotel De Haro.

 

Then we checked out the Historic Park full of expensive structures.

The hands of God holding the world.

 

Lastly, we saw the camel, Mona.

 

 

 

Later that night we ended up at a Karaoke bar, met some locals, and had a really good time. The next day we went on a whale watching tour which changed my mind forever about those big beautiful creatures. More on that tomorrow!

Way too much sadness.

I can't believe that Finn is gone. I'm a GLEE lover and Cory Monteith feels like someone I actually know. I'm not sure why I get so sad when something like this happens... I literally cried when Aaliyah died and I didn't even follow her at the time. When such talented people die so young and so sudden it just breaks my heart. I know that Cory had issues with substance abuse but I just never saw this coming. When it popped up on my news feed I immediately started googling hoping this was some kind of mistake. I can't help but think, "What is Lea Michele going through right now?" She is one of the most talented people I can think of in Hollywood and my heart aches for her sadness. His family, his fans, everyone who he made happy is hurting and even though he is just another celebrity... he will be missed so much. I have no more words... I'll never understand why I get so sad but I am.


He was only 31. My husbands age... too young.





1982-2013 RIP