Of an incredible weekend:

It’s tough to take good wildlife photos with a point and shoot, but here’s my best attempt for the day.

We got into the middle of a pod of orcas this evening. It was absolutely incredible. We were crossing the traffic lanes when we saw them breaching to the south. I saw one come completely out of the water – that was a first for me. Earlier, the radio was chattering about them being just north of Blake Island, so we knew they were in the area.

We got outside of the shipping lanes and waited for them to pass us. They were spread out all across the water and there was no way to avoid their path, so we cut the engines and floated as they came closer. At one point, a group of 8 came within 20 feet of the stern of the boat, in a row. I’ll have to find out more about behavior – they were shoulder-to-shoulder (or whatever one would call that ) and swimming in perfect unison. Hunting, perhaps? No words to describe it ~ we are so lucky to live here in the Northwest. My dad is visiting from Ohio in a few weeks & we will take him to the San Juans. Hopefully, we will find the pods there as well.