I made the trip up to Washington with my sister (Seana), my brother (Bryant), and my cousin (Nate). We got there on a Saturday night (July 28) and stayed until the next Friday (August 3).

Day 1- Saturday July 28
Getting there was a pain in the butt. The plane was scheduled to depart at 7:25PM. It was delayed until 8:00PM. Sure, that doesn’t seem too bad, but we had to be at the car rental place by 11:00PM. We landed in Washington at around 10:35PM. My sister and I ran to the shuttle that would take us to the car rental. We had just made it by about 5 minutes. So, we got our car, but our hearts were in our stomachs. We drove the car back to the airport to meet the boys. They were getting the luggage. That took another 30 minutes. Finally, at about midnight, we were getting on the freeway heading north to Anacortes. It was about an hour and a half away from the airport.
Right off the bat, we encountered another problem. I had thought I had the car in drive but apparently, this model also had a manual option. I actually had the car in manual, and was clueless when it came to shifting gears. Seana whipped out the owner’s manual and figured it out enough so I could get off the freeway safely (yes, I actually made it on the freeway). We stopped for food and I figured out how to put the stupid car in drive. It was a smooth ride the rest of the way to the hotel.
BUT…then we got to the hotel. It was 1:30AM. The place was empty except for a woman and a man who were in-line in front of us. It turns out the man at the desk was just about to give our room to this couple when we walked in. He said that if we had been 15 seconds later our room would have been gone (the woman was just handing him her credit card). That really pissed us off, especially since we had called the day before and said we would be getting there between midnight and 2:00AM.
We didn’t fall asleep until about 5AM. The night had been very stressful. Luckily, the next day was a free day.

Day 2- Sunday July 29
Not much to tell. We spent most of the morning in the room watching T.V. We went to 2 city parks in the afternoon.

Day 3- Monday July 30: Whale-Watching from Orcas Island
This was the first day we scheduled a whale-watching trip. We took the ferry over to Orcas Island for our 1:30PM whale watch. When we got there, we got extremely bad news from the captain. The Orcas hadn’t been spotted that day, and they hadn’t been spotted the day before. We got on the boat with heavy hearts. We saw no Orcas, and we saw no whales. We did see a huge number of harbor porpoises. I have never seen so many. There were probably hundreds in this little area, all feeding. That was quite and awesome sight. They were so close to the boat. I had never seen one up close before. Every trip I had ever taken in WA I had seen them but never in groups of more than 2 or 3, and never closer than a few hundred yards. I would have enjoyed it more if I knew I would be seeing Orcas, but I tried my best.
At this point, I was still very hopeful that I would be seeing Orcas in the next few days.


Day 4- Tuesday July 31: sea kayaking from San Juan Island
I have yet to see an Orca from a kayak, but this is always the most enjoyable day. I just love kayaking around San Juan Island.
We got on the ferry to San Juan Island for our 11:30 trip. Bryant was my partner and Seana and Nate were partners.
We paddled from San Juan County Park past the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. When the Orcas are in the area this is prime territory to see the whales. This is where the land based whale watch park is located. Unfortunately, the Orcas had not been spotted for the third day in a row.
We had seen a lot more wildlife than the previous year. We saw many jelly fish. I put my hand over the edge and touched a few. Some were huge. We actually saw quite a few harbor seals. We saw quite a few harbor porpoises as well (I was the one who spotted them XD). During lunch, we stopped at a tide pool, and played with the little creatures we found there. The most interesting was a Striped Sunstar.
We made it back at about 5:00PM. Next year we plan on going on a 5 day kayaking trip.

Day 5- Wednesday August 1: whale-watching from San Juan Island
We again caught the ferry to make it to our whale-watching trip by 1:00PM. This was our last scheduled trip. It was now or never. When we got to the boat there was a tiny bit of hope. L-pod had been spotted. This was the first Orca sighting in over 3 days. They were just out of reach, but the captain was hoping by the time we had gotten out their way they would have been close enough to see. This didn’t happen. The captain received word that at the pace the Orcas were going they wouldn’t be back until 9:00 that night. All hopes to see the Orcas were crushed. I was devastated. I couldn’t imagine going another year without seeing them.
We did end up seeing 4 Minke whales. It was my first time seeing them. Again, if I weren’t extremely depressed I would have enjoyed it more. It was very cool because they were all feeding. I find it so much more interesting to watch whales when they are feeding rather than just swimming around. There was obviously a huge school of fish because there was also a huge gathering of sea birds. The water was covered in sea birds, with the whales emerging in the center. It was an amazing sight. We spent about 30 minutes watching the whales until we headed back to the harbor.
Actually, this trip was the worst whale-watching trip I have ever been on…anywhere. They never kept the passengers updated on what was going on with the whales. I practically stocked the captain for information. They hadn’t even told everyone that we were looking at Minke whales, or how many we were watching, or what they were doing. I don’t recommend them at all. If you would like the name of the company PM me.
On the ride back to the island I decided I would call a whale watching boat based in Anacortes to see if they had openings for a trip the next day. Luckily they did. I quickly scheduled a whale watch for 3:00PM the next day. This was truly my last hope to see Orcas.
Since the sun doesn’t set until 9:00PM up there and it was only about 8:00PM when the ferry docked we decided to check out deception pass. It was on our way back to the hotel and one of the naturalists recommended it. It was so beautiful there. We found a place by the water and just played with the rocks and on the driftwood while watching the sunset. And of course, I took many photos.

Day 6- Thursday August 2: whale-watching from Anacortes
We woke up a little early (meaning 10ish) so we could check out deception pass. I love it over there. It was a really foggy morning, but it gave the place a sort of mysterious feeling. This time we went on a hike instead of staying by one of the bays the whole time. I highly recommend the place for those that love the outdoors.
We were to check-in for whale watching by 2:00. I actually called them around 11:00AM to see if they had seen Orcas that morning (they offer 3 different trips. One is at 9:00AM, so they would have word by then). To my absolute delight, they had seen them, but they had to travel 70+ miles to find them. But they promised I would be seeing Orcas in the afternoon and by that time we wouldn’t have to travel too far to see them.
The company we used this time was based in Anacortes. I used them 2 years ago and didn’t remember having such a wonderful experience, but this trip was my favorite ever.
They had 2 very knowledgeable naturalists. They actually told stories about the Orcas. In depth stories you don’t hear everyday. I had not experienced this on either of my other trips. The captain also kept all of us very informed over the mic. We always knew exactly what was going on. Once we got out of the harbor, we were told the Orcas were 30 miles away (opposed to the 70 miles they were that morning). Once we found the Orcas, he was also very respectful of them, and always kept his distance.
We reached the Orcas in just under 2 hours. They were right by Lummi Island. I had never seen them in this location before, so the scenery was all very new to me. When we reached them, we found J1 (Ruffles) and J2 (Granny) leading the super pod of what the captain estimated as 70+ whales. I was so excited to see my 2 favorite whales right off the bat. I had not seen them last year, but the year before I had seen them in this same position- leading the super pod.
Since we were going the opposite direction, we eventually lost them (at least for time being). Eventually we were surrounded by Orcas. Every which way you would turn there would be a small group of 3 or 4 Orcas. Lucky for us they were ready to put on a huge show. Everywhere I turned I saw breaches, tail lobbing, spyhopping, porpoising, anything you could think of these whales were doing. We must have seen 30+ breaches, most were the younger whales, but Ruffles gave us a huge treat when he breached. We also saw a few double and triple Orca breaches. They were also hunting so I would see them rush to the surface and sort of throw their head out of the water grabbing at the salmon. They also did lots of speed swimming changing direction every now and then.
Finally, we set into a sort of groove. We had a group of 4 Orcas on our port side and a group of 4 Orcas on our starboard side. There were Orcas surrounding the whole boat, and there were others further out to the sides as well. My sister and I stayed on the port side closest to the bow for a while and just watched that group. These whales were unidentified by the crew, so we didn’t know who we were looking at, but we fell in love with them. Three of them stayed in a huddled group. The fourth whale sort of stayed back, but seemed to be watching the larger group. Two of them stuck really close together, in mother/calf position. We had a feeling they weren’t mother and calf, but we had no way of knowing. I got pictures of them that I would love Ided if anyone can help. We probably watched that single group for 30 minutes. The boat was full, but we didn’t feel crowded. In fact, there was no one around us practically the whole time we were watching that little group. It felt very intimate. We even started talking to them lol. Two of the four have been IDed as K12 (Sequim) and her son K37 (Rainshadow). I have a photo of these two in my gallery.
The four Orcas on the other side were identified as J14 (Samish) along with her offspring J30 (Riptide), J37 (Hy’Shaq), and J40 (Suttles). My sister and I had switched to watch them for a while. OMG I just loved Suttles. She was such a hyper little girl- breaching everywhere. She made me laugh a lot.
Other whales I know we saw were J27 (Blackberry), J32 (Mako), and J26 (Mike). I know the other whales were in the area but J-pod was leading.
We got to spend a really long time with the Orcas- 2+ hours. Finally, when we were about to leave we stopped the boat to see if any of the Orcas would come closer. It fell silent and all I could hear was the breaths of the Orcas surrounding us and the splashes of water some of them made as they were speed swimming. Eventually two were speed swimming towards us. They took a breath directly under where I was standing. I could see the water running off their backs. Then they swam under the boat, again right where I was standing. I ran quickly to the other side and I caught them swimming by- the whites of their body shinning through the water. A few minutes later, a group of 3 did the same thing. Finally, after an extremely successful whale-watching trip we started heading home. But for another 15 minutes, the whales still surrounded us. My sister and I caught eye of 4 whales in the distance beside a small boat. We recognized them as the 4 in which we had grown attached. The smallest of the 4 was following very close behind the boat. It even spyhopped a couple of times. It made us laugh.
This trip was worth the wait (and the extra $300 I had to pay- I had to bribe everyone else to go by paying their way). It was too amazing for words. It truly was the cherry on top of an already wonderful trip. I wasn’t impressed with my photos, actually I was disappointed, but the trip was such a wonderful memory I don’t really care.

I posted all of my photos in my webshots account if anyone is interested.
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