Cincinnati - Mitchell, SD
August 13th, 2016
Badlands, SD
August 14th, 2016
Hill City, SD
August 15th, 2016
August 16th, 2016
West Yellowstone, MT
August 18th, 2016
August 19th, 2016
August 20th, 2016
August 21st, 2016
Glacier National Park
August 22nd, 2016
August 23rd, 2016
August 24th, 2016
August 25th, 2016
Seattle, WA
August 28th, 2016
August 29th, 2016
Silver Creek, WA
August 31st, 2016
September 1st, 2016
September 2nd, 2016
Crescent City, CA
September 4th, 2016
September 5th, 2016
Diamond Lake, OR
September 7th, 2016
September 8th, 2016
Twin Falls, ID
September 10th, 2016
Moab, UT
September 12th, 2016
September 13th, 2016
September 14th, 2016
September 15th, 2016
Manitou Springs, CO
September 17th, 2016
September 18th, 2016
September 19th, 2016
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Today, we went on a whale watching tour out of the Port of Edmonds, just north of Seattle.
Before we boarded, we had fun hanging out at Marina Beach (skipping rocks).
We were on Puget Sound Express' Chilkat Express (not my photo below obviously, just for reference).
It is the fastest passenger vessel on the west coast! It made for a nice fast, smooth ride.
Gavin had fun keeping lookout for whales from the comfort of the cabin until we got further north.
We went up Puget Sound to the Canadian waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca where we first saw the J, K, and L Pods of the Southern Clan of resident whales. It is a rare sight to see all 3 pods coming in at the same time. We followed them east towards the San Juan Islands for an hour or so. There were around 40 whales!
We didn't get to see any big jumps, but a ton of breeches and a couple of tail slaps (which looked like nothing but splashes on my pictures).
The two in the picture below breeched the surface about 20-30 feet from the boat right in front of us!
The kids were having a blast! We even got to see J-2 "Granny", the oldest whale on earth at 105 years old (average for a female is 80-90). Footage of her was even used for the movie Free Willy.
So many whales in one little area!
The largest fin in the middle there is "Granny".
From there we headed over to cruise around Protection Island. There were tons of birds, including around 20 bald eagles, and lots of harbor seals.
We even spotted a couple of deer up on the ridge.
We thought we were headed back to port after that, but the captain got a call. A humpback whale had been spotted just off of the Point No Point lighthouse, so we headed over there.
We were also lucky enough to spot a dolphin here (not common here at all - they have followed their food source farther north because of warmer El Nino waters).
We finally made it back into port an hour later than normal because of all the awesome activity!
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