Whale Watching

 We've loosely adopted a "we might only be here once" mentality on vacation.  I think you can go overboard with that but we try to use it in moderation.  We have the opportunity to visit some interesting places and we've decided to take advantage of some of the unique things here in the Pacific Northwest.  

One of the Little Guy's favorite shows is Diego.  He loves learning about all of the animals.  One of his favorite episodes is about whales.  I thought he would be thrilled to be on a boat AND be looking for whales but thrilled wouldn't exactly be the right word.  He had fun....but it wasn't the "oh my goodness this is the best day of my life" fun that I thought he might have.  He seems to have developed a strange fear of extreme things.  Swinging too high....boat going too fast...that sort of thing.  However he LOVED wearing the "onoculars" and looking for the whales.  He insisted on wearing them backwards.

Looking for whales with Daddy

It was a GORGEOUS day.  Close to perfect.

A massive orca.  We followed this pod for most of the trip.

Look at this view.  It seriously was incredible.

These 3 traveled together

In addition to the orcas we also saw a humpback whale.  You can see the tail if you look closely in this photo.  

We were also able to see a submarine.  These were Russian submarines that were purchased by the Canadians to protect these waters.  There are six of them.  It is apparently extremely rare to see the humpback and that sub so it was awesome that we were able to see both!

I would totally recommend a whale watching excursion.  It was pricey and we were very thankful to have my parents on board with us.  We took the 3 hour cruise and it was a long time to have both boys occupied.  My parents were a great help and it enabled Peter and I to get some time to enjoy the trip.  We were also SO blessed to have such a gorgeous day.  It was sunny and warm enough to be outside on the boat.  We also had a fantastic guide who told us stories and gave us information about the surrounding islands.

So thankful to have had to opportunity to do something so fun!