19 September 2010
Trip Day 3 – Seattle – Day 2
Posted by BaBa under: Travel .
Today, we awoke early to the alarm. With the indifferent service at the hotel, we dared not trust them to make a wake-up call. 5:00am is early after a long day of walking, but we were well rested. We arrived downstairs for breakfast and then awaited the towncar to take us to the pier. It did not come at 6:45am. At 6:50am, we had the desk clerk call to find our car was on the way from the airport. The airport!! The airport is a 30+ minute commute on the transit rail. Instead he called us a cab, which for less than 1/2 the price came in 2 minutes and whisked us quickly to the pier.
We arrived and got in the queue for boarding. We boarded easily and were off for all day adventure. It is an overcast, but we are not experiencing in rain. We got a little rain late in the day yesterday, but in reality we had a wonderful sunny day in Seattle.
We can only hope that clouds lift and the sun will shine on our trip.
The day started gray and then the fog rolled in. However, it seems to be like Irish Weather. You do not complain about the weather in Ireland because it will quickly change. Change it did. We ended up with some nice sunny spells during our trip.
I got a couple of pictures of seals and a few of a heron in flight. I will have to wait until I download them to see how sharp they are. We also spotted some purposes, but I did not get any shots of them.
The scenery is very beautiful and we enjoyed looking at the different islands and coastline as we traveled. We arrived in Friday Harbor in the San Juan islands on schedule and off loaded those passengers who had this as their final destination. This was the last time that we would be on schedule until we departed Friday Harbor again for Seattle.
Our next phase of the trip was to remain on the boat for a whale watching and wildlife trip. Shortly after we left Friday Harbor, we sucked a stick into the jet engine and sat dead in the water for 15 minutes while the crew worked to expel the stick. Off we then went to try and find where the orcas were for our sightseeing. According to the captain, the pods (there are 3) were up in Canadian Water and were a little further than they normally go. Couple being delayed with having a longer trip, we were going to be late coming back to Friday Harbor.
However, it was well worth the trip and delay. We did find the Orcas and in fact saw all 3 pods. There are approximately 20 whales in a pod. It was a great day for viewing. I clicked off a lot of photos. We got a good close-up view and got to see many different behaviors. We saw them breach (jumping out of the water) and cartwheel (a sideways jump out of the water). We also saw them lobtailing which is flopping their tail on the water to stir up the fish for feeding. We also saw them spyglass or periscope which is when a whale just pokes his head above water to look around. I got photos of all of these behaviors and after looking at the shots, believe I have a few really nice shots.
We then sailed back to Friday Harbor and had only 1 hour instead of 2 1/2 hours for lunch and sightseeing. So we had Ice Cream for lunch. There was no easy way to located a restaurant and eat in such a short time. The Ice Cream was good and we will have dinner in town after we get back to Seattle.
We are on the way back to Seattle and should arrive in 2 1/2 hours. We will then get a bite to eat and take a cab back to the hotel. We have an early call tomorrow as we are taking the train to Portland and after lunch with a blogging friend and fellow adoptive parent, we will begin the drive to San Francisco.
Here are a few iPhone photos from Friday Harbor. I will have to post the whale shots later after I download them and select the best ones. I will also add a few of the scenic shots from today’s trip.
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