Pacific North Wonderland Day Six: I Saw a Whale!

On our last full day on Orcas Island the main plan for the day was to go whale watching. We talked about it a lot. Is it too expensive? Is it too late in the season? Would it be worth it? We decided to go for it. And I'm so glad we did!
Our boat left at one, so before that we went on a hike in Moran State Park. We took the short trail to see Cascade Falls.

It was beautiful!

Had to commemorate with a selfie. This the sweater I bought in Portland! It has been so warm since we got back, I haven't gotten to wear it again!

Look at that tiny pine cone!

It was such a beautiful day, and we were already in the park, so we decided drive up to Mt. Constitution again and attempt to see the view. And it looked like THIS.

We were laughing so hard! It looked like we were on the end of the world! I told Travis "Look like you are seeing something amazing!" Hahahaha, even though we couldn't see anything I'm glad we went up there.

Then it was time for whale watching! We went with Outer Island Excursions on one of their last excursions of the season.

The boat went up into international waters and around Canada. It was GORGEOUS! Even without the whales, it would have been wonderful. We zipped past lots of islands, saw seals, and maybe I cried when we saw the tiny dorsal fin of a harbor dolphin way in the distance.

There had been a pod siting about an hour out. At first everyone was excited and riding on the front of the boat. It was COLD though, and windy so by the end almost everyone was inside. Except Travis, up on the bow in his shorts.

This guy had the biggest zoom lens! I was jealous! This was moments before we saw the whales...

These photos aren't super impressive but it was INCREDIBLE to see these animals in the wild. We saw a pod of seven whales, including a baby that was only a few months old! It was so tiny! We followed along with them for almost an hour. I took something like 300 photos of them, almost all of them look  like this, but further away. Ha! See the mist coming out of his blowhole?

When we first saw them they were feeding on something, then we saw them in a hunting pattern. It was just amazing, and I couldn't take my eyes off of them! The crew of our boat was amazing too. There was a naturalist on board who answered questions and was so excited about the local wild life.
There were a few other boats nearby, and it was cool to hear the crews talking about which pod we were seeing. They could identify them with just their markings. Which seemed crazy to me, they look so similar and you can only see them for a few seconds at a time!

Here is me, moments after seeing a whale! Ah! So happy! Definitely cried.

Here is the inside of the boat. You sat on big bench seats. The guy in front of us kept opening his window to take photos out of it, so cold!

This island had seals all around it! You can kind of see them, the little dots down there at the water line. We saw two get in a slap fight. So cute.
As we were getting off the boat the naturalist said that this would be a perfect night to watch the sunset from Mt. Constitution. We were a little skeptical, but decided to give it one last try!

We stopped at this mountain lake. I wish it had been warm enough to swim! We saw lots of geese here, and someone was walking a cute little poodle.

I love exploring with Travis. He is always up to pull over whenever I want, even if it is just so I can peek over the edge of a dock.

We stopped at our favorite lookout again. It's looking good...maybe we'll be able to see from the top! And guess what, we saw ANOTHER half white deer! This one was a baby (kinda).

And here is Travis scaling the mountain, trying to get some closer pics for me.

Look at that golden light! We stayed on that tiny trail, but it was a pretty steep slope!

Success! It was clear and we could see so far! It was breathtaking! Here is Travis at the top of the observation tower on top of the mountain.

Just amazing. Totally worth the three drives we made up there.

Remembered to take a photo together, even if we are both making kind of weird faces.

We stayed up top until it started to get dark, then went back to our little cabin to catch one last beach sunset. We had a beach fire, then went inside and Travis made us spaghetti with this super delicious locally made pasta. It was such a good day!

Pacific North Wonderland Day Five: East Sound and Island Exploring

The first morning we woke up in our little island cabin we finished off the donuts we had bought in Portland and looked at the ocean out the window. I'm not going to lie, I was looking for whales. I was determined to see at least one! Travis actually wasn't feeling well so we got a late start after he loaded up on cold medicine.

We spent a good portion of the morning exploring East Sound, which is the town on Orcas Island. It was pretty tiny, but has a few restaurants, gift shops, a museum and a tiny theater that is only open a couple days a week. First order of business was going to a little book store for chai lattes and postcard writing. I always make Travis write a few out at least once a trip, and this time I asked him to send one to our nephew Ellis. I peeked over to see what he was writing and it said something like "We saw Elmo today, he was much redder in real life!" Haha! That isn't exactly what I meant. 

After finding a post office box to send them off we walked down to the water and looked out at the view. There was lots of cloud coverage but it was still gorgeous. I was definitely still on whale watch!

We walked this labyrinth by the ocean as well. Look at that creepily huge pumpkin in the middle!

We killed a few hours walking around town. For some reason I was really into that fish open sign.

We passed this little thrift store and I really didn't want to go in. I made the arguement that it was on a tiny island, so how could there be good stuff, and Travis said "Come on, there is a dream pet in there waiting for you".....

And he was right! Ha! The woman who runs the store said she hadn't ever seen one before and almost threw it away! It was meant to be. We found a kokeshi doll too.

There were so many old VW vans on the island! Travis lamented his lack of a van every time we saw one.

We went in the Orcas Island Historical Society Museum. There wasn't a ton of stuff in it, but they had stories from people who had lived on the island at all different times. Our favorite was about the school superintendent who canoed between islands to see the schools, and once was stuck in a storm with a goat in his canoe! There was also one from a woman who said when they would pull up water from the well they would have to pull the snakes out of the bucket! Ah!

They had lots of photos of early settlers. The island has seen a lot of prune farms over the years.

We really didn't expect to be able to eat out with such limited choices, but The Kitchen ended up having a few options! I had veggies and noodles with a coconut curry sauce that was delightful!

After lunch we drove to the big state park on the island, Moran State Park. Look at that moss covered sign! Lovely.

We pulled up the ranger station looking for a map and this dog came to the window. We cracked up about it for the rest of the day.

We drove up the main road toward Mount Constitution and were amazed at this view when we pulled over at the scenic overlook. That deer! He had a white body with a brown head! He stood there for a long time and I took one million photos of him.

There is a nice shoot of Travis and our rental car!

Matching plaid on the mountain.

We got up to the top and got super confused by the pay system. Also, it had started to rain so I put my nice camera away and just took my waterproof one to the summit.

It was pretty cloudy, so we couldn't see much. It was still a cool view.

Up on top of the observation tower they had images so you know what islands you were looking at.

This ledge isn't as scary as it looks. There is a long ledge under the wall that goes out another ten feet. Travis still wouldn't let me stand on it. I am not known for having good balance.

Couldn't resist a photo of my feet with the wet fall leaves.

We explored the rest of the island, and drove all the way to Olga. "All the way" is maybe a little strong. I think there were less than 30 miles of roads on the whole island. I liked that the name was on the top of the building. Maybe for little airplanes to see.

Creeeeeeepy pier!

We wanted to get back to our cabin before dark so we headed back to the north shore. We saw another deer on the way! This one was right by the road, just standing there.

We took a walk down the private beach when we got back. We were on the lookout for tide pools but didn't find any. We did find huge pieces of kelp that had washed up.

We walked out on these rocks "Is that an anemone? Is that a crab? What is this?" haha, we don't know much about the ocean.

Travis used the kelp as a whip for a while. I got a cute video of him doing it, and also hitting himself by accident with it. We walked back to our cabin and I had hot cider while Travis made us a beach fire.

We sat by the fire and watched another beautiful sunset, then went back to our cabin. Travis made spaghetti and garlic bread, and I did some drawing and reading. We drank the bottle of blackberry cider we bought in Portland and lazed around in front of the fire before turning in. It was lovely.