ORCA!!!!!!!

On Tuesday for work I went whale watching! We don't get paid much but this is a definite perk. It was completely fogged over during the first half of the trip. We rode 3 hours north to the San Juan Islands and docked at Friday Harbor for a two hour lunch. Jess, Julia and I set out for a little patch of grass to each the lunches we'd packed then went to the whale museum. We had an in there too so again escaped that admission fee. We got some ice cream Friday Harbor is pretty adorable and I can't wait to make a longer trip to the San Juans for exploring of all the different islands/areas. Our captain Eric got word that there were a few members of the "L pod" south of the island we were on so we set off. There are "resident" oracs that live in the waters of the Puget Sound in the summer. Orcas are also commonly known as killer whales but they are really more like dolphins and porpoises, it's all very confusing so I just call them orca since that name is derived from the latin name. There are two populations of orca also, the resident orca come to Puget Sound to feed on salmon in the summer and there are transient orca which are much more aggressive and they don't really "live" in the Puget Sound but do some in and look for seal to eat and also occasionally eat up other whales and orca. So the resident orca that we were after are divided into different pods based on who they travel around with, they even all have names since orca have saddle patches (think birth marks) on their bodies so you can tell one from the other. We encountered two subgroups of the L pod. The first was about 3-4 orca which we followed for 30 minutes, there were both male and female. I tried to get some shots but we also stayed around 200+ yards away from them unless them came to us. It was quite thrilling and I was chanting silently "breach, breach, breach" (which is when they come out of the water) but they didn't seem to hear me. We then heard about another subgroup of the L pod less than a mile away so hightailed it over there and saw three come up all at once, all lined up. I was on the wrong side of the boat though so didn't get the best photo. Nonetheless, it was a successful first whale watching experience and amazing to see these wonderful, beautiful animals in person. We teach about them on a weekly basis so I feel better about preaching what I've now practiced.