It's funny how when we were living in New England, not once have we gone on a whale-watching trip. We had to travel all the way to Seattle before we decided we should go experience it at least once in our lives, hence some last-minute change in plans, and off we went to the docks.
There were a number of companies organising whale-watching tours, but we went with Island Adventures.
While waiting for the boat to get-a-going...
A blanket to lay on the icy-cold bench, and some KFC that we bought along the way to the docks, and we are ready for the ride. With the exception of us and an English couple, everyone else ( I think there were 30 of us in total) chose to sit in the heated area in the lower deck. That day was a particularly cold one, and I would have gone to sit in the lower deck too except I get sick without fresh air. So I gritted my teeth and prepared to freeze away.
These people live luxuriously. Every house has its own private dock and boat.
a lighthouse on an island
yifan picking up binoculars for us
where there are steller sealions, there are whales
It drizzled a little on our way out into the Canadian waters, but thank goodness it stopped really quickly, and what greeted us was a beautiful rainbow. We could see both ends of it!
But really, we were there to look at whales. And this was what we saw:
A mother whale and her calf ( humpbacks to be exact) were frolicking in the waters. Thanks to the helpful Canadian people ( see the yellow boat in the first pic, and 2 helicopters patrolling the area), our captain knew exactly where to find the whales.
Everyone wanted a piece of the action-- camera flashes were going off, binoculars were stucked onto faces, everyone was trying to get a better look at the whales.
After we saw enough of the whales, we badly needed to warm ourselves up.
We were very satisfied after seeing the whales, so what do you do after you are satisfied? You sleep. Yifan dozed off on the bench in the lower deck. I went back up and fell asleep under the watchful eye of the English couple who were still on the upper deck. I don't know how long I slept, but the sky was getting dark when I woke up! The couple might have thought it was really strange since we came from Texas, and it was unlikely that we were suffering from jetlag. Truth was, we were feeling so tired from lack of sleep the night before. Hehe.
I woke up in time to see this -- the U.S national bird, endangered Bald Eagle perched atop a little island.
fashion faux pas, but who cares? i was freezing
That night, we stayed at Mediterranean Inn in Queen Anne district. It's great hotel in a great location, and it comes at a great price. There is even a Starbucks outlet that is linked directly to the hotel.
resting my tired and sore bones after a day out in the ocean :-)
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