As I’ve
mentioned in previous blog posts, I get to travel a lot for my “big girl”
job. Two weeks ago I was in one of my
favorite cities…Seattle, WA. This
particular convention is one of the largest that I have to plan each year and
it keeps me out of the ‘burgh for about eight days. I really didn’t mind though because again, I
love Seattle and as everyone back on the East Coast was boiling to death, the
temperature in Seattle was a lovely 73 degrees.
Although it did sprinkle just about every day for at least 10 minutes,
it was nicer than cooking to death.
Each year,
the two VPs that I get to travel with always like to plan a special activity
for the three of us to do. This year I
got to pick that activity and being that we were in the Pacific Northwest
during June, there is only one thing I could think of to do…whale watching
(June is the best time to see the transient Orca Whales).
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| Our Sea Plane |
On our last day there, we bravely boarded a
sea plane from Seattle heading towards Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands. When we arrived at the dock to catch the
plane, I have to admit that I was scared shitless! It was so incredibly tiny and they needed to
know each person’s weight. This
determined where you sat on the plane. Not
that I felt like it made much of a difference, there were only four seats on
the plane and a seat for the pilot. But
I climbed up the ladder anyways and held on for dear life. Before I knew it, we were in the air.
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| The View from the Sea Plane |
The view
from the air was incredible. There were
so many islands (over 400) and we flew for about 45 minutes before we started
making our descent into Friday Harbor.
Again, as we were coming in for our landing, I was scared to death but surprisingly,
the landing was fantastic. In fact it
was so much better than landing in a normal plane. We got off and started walking to wear we
checked in for the whale watching boat.
As we were walking, we saw a sea lion.
He was cute and we found out that his name was pop-eye. Why?
Well, he only had one eye and wasn’t able to hunt anymore so he hung out
by the docks and was hand fed by a couple that owned a bait shop. Just seeing this sea lion got me so excited
and hopeful that we would be fortunate enough to see some whales.
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| Pop-Eye the Sea Lion |
We had a
couple of hours to kill before we boarded the whale watching boat so we got a
few drinks and appetizers at this cute little restaurant on the water. Then we boarded the boat and started heading north. On the way we saw tons and tons of sea lions,
American Bald Eagles and even rams on some of the islands. The boat personnel were super knowledgeable
and were able to answer all kinds of questions and give you interesting facts
along the way. Before I knew, we had
been traveling about and a half and the captain was getting information over
his radio that we were nearing the area where whales were being spotted. Everyone on the boat stood up and kept their
eyes peeled. Next thing I knew…there
they were. A pod of about 10 Orca Whales
just swimming along. It was amazing and
in the top five best things that have happened my life (to date)! The boats stay a pretty good distance away
from the whales but you could see them coming to surface and diving back
down. Next thing I knew, the captain of
our boat throws the emergency break on and we come to an abrupt stop. He comes dashing out of his cabin and starts
yelling “one is coming towards us”. All of
a sudden you could see the water moving and out of nowhere, there was a massive
whale…right there…in front of us!!! The
guides and the captain of the boat just couldn’t believe it. It was the closest they had ever come to one
and we were fortunate enough to be on the boat.
When I say it was amazing, magical, breath taking, moving, incredible,
beautiful…I’m not exaggerating. It was
all of those things and more!
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| The "Big Guy" |
After about
four hours we headed back to Friday Harbor.
We boarded our sea plane and took the 45 minute flight back to
Seattle. None of us could stop talking
about it for the rest of the night and it’s now been two weeks since I’ve been
back and I still can’t stop talking about it or showing the photos. If you ever get the opportunity or are
looking for a unique vacation, head out to Seattle. You won’t be disappointed. It’s a fun city with lots going and beautiful
scenery!
PS. The photos are some of the photos that I was
able to get on the journey. The whale photo
is the big guy that was right near our boat!
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