#cloudormountain

Washington State - Anacortes

I had originally planned a trip to Washington as a surprise for my husband. We both love wildlife and nature, so every time we travel alone, our goal is complete natural world immersion. After watching Blackfish by myself one morning, I realized how complex and interesting orcas are, so I googled places to see them in the wild which led me to plan a trip to the San Juan Islands. 

Around Christmas time last year, we discovered we had a mouse infestation in our attic and crawl space. In an effort to preserve our health and our electrical wiring, I had to spend a significant amount of money to have them removed, which led me to reveal the destination of the “surprise trip” I was planning. I figured it wouldn’t be a possibility with the amount of money I had to spend. 

Fast forward to spring, and we were on our feet again. I realized a Washington trip would not be very much money, but also knew a trip to Puerto Rico would be even cheaper and a fun place to go. I left the decision up to my husband as my best friend and I had planned our entire California trip without his input. He voiced that he really had his heart set on Washington, and I’m so thankful that he made that decision. If Washington State is not on your bucket list, it really should be.

10,000 Weight in Gold - The Head and the Heart

We arose bright and early at Comfort Inn Kent, to pick up our rental from Avis. Rested from our day of travel before. We’d left for the airport as soon as I’d gotten off of my shift, flying from Atlanta to Seattle. We’d sat next to a lady from Alaska. We took the hotel shuttle to Kent with a very nice Chinese man in his mid-sixties. We caught our first glimpse of Mt. Rainier en route, which was mind blowing even amidst a twilight fog. After enjoying shrimp tacos, a veggie burger, and clam chowder from Duke’s Chowder House (receiving a free Lyft ride from a very sweet young girl who didn’t care that the app had glitched out and refused to accept cash payment), we’d enjoyed a very tranquil night’s sleep. The first night sleep of vacation, knowing we’d made it to the destination. 

The Night We Met - Lord Huron

Magic is the only way to describe the coniferous forest that surrounds the highways throughout Washington, as we first observed on our trek from Kent to Anacortes. Anacortes nears the Canadian border, and is the gateway to the San Juan Islands. This drive birthed our game “Mountain or Cloud”? I have been to the Rockies as a teenager. We drove across the entire state of Colorado, and I have spent significant time in the Sierras. However, there is nothing to compare to the glacier topped Mount Rainier, Mount Adam, and Mount Baker jutting from the landscape.

Paint - The Paper Kites 

We arrived early for our boat tour in Anacortes. Washington was a lot colder in July than I had anticipated.

I cannot begin to describe how cold I was. Underneath my rain coat was a thin cotton shirt coupled with waterproof leggings and Chacos. 

The catamaran was two stories, and the guides asked that we share the upper level. However, it was so cold that most stayed downstairs, retreating into the warm indoor cabin. I didn’t feel much motivation to move out of their way, I felt that we had earned our spot on the upper deck by braving the cold as we traipsed through the waters between Washington and Vancouver Island. 

Our guides were a group of three naturalists, and one in particular enjoyed entertaining our questions. We learned all about the birds in the area, and I pined to see a puffin, which didn’t happen. The sea lions were out of the area at the time, but we saw multiple harbor seals. I asked our guide if she had ever seen an orca eat a harbor seal, and her answer was “Yes, we saw that last night.” They look so precious with their puppy faces. There was a moment on the tour when a group of transient orca surrounded a small island infested with harbor seals. I was not sure who to root for, but the harbor seals successfully escaped that meal attempt.

We saw plenty of orcas on our tour, but they were pretty far away. After my experiences with humpbacks in Hawaii, I was really expecting us to get a lot closer. However, Naturalist Haley told us a cautionary tale about Luna the Orca, who socialized with the boats and was killed one day by a propellor. They keep a healthy distance out of respect for the Orca. 

Each Orca in the area is photo-identified and named by the characteristics of their dorsal fins. A dorsal fin on a large male can be as tall as 6 feet. We saw an enormous whale while we were out, but since all of the transient orca we saw were engaged in hunting behavior, we didn’t get to see them jump as they would if they were engaging in social behavior. It was still an honor to be in their presence. However, we did see them jump to build momentum while hunting porpoises.

We learned how the resident orca (only eat certain types of fish in the area) are dying out. The transient orca (which eat porpoises and harbor seals) were thriving in the area. They also have hump back and minke whales in the area, and I told Haley how I really wanted to see hump backs bubble feed in the wild, as they do not feed in Hawaii where I saw a mom with her calf. She explained we would have to go to Alaska to see that, because the hump backs in the Anacortes area do not bubble feed.

It’s amazing to me how different whales of the same species can be.

We were talking with Haley about how different pods of orcas can speak totally different languages and not understand each other. She said the orcas in the Anacortes area are peaceful between the pods, and some of the pods can even socialize with one another. From my understanding, transient and resident orca are unable to communicate, but they live peacefully in the area. 

I waited in vane for the orcas to approach the boat closer, but this never happened. However, our time on the water was amazing, despite the fact that I was freezing. There was a point where we could see Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, and the Cascades all at once. We saw a bald eagle in flight.

Once the tour was over, I felt like I could do nothing to thaw out. We warmed ourselves in the car, but because we were super hungry, we decided to stop and eat at a little place in Anacortes recommended by our guide. 

I ordered red wine in a futile attempt to warm myself more, but I was shivering most of the time that we were there. We ordered a whole steamed artichoke with curry aioli dipping sauce as an appetizer, and only noticed we were eating it wrong after the third piece. (Whoops. Shout out to the people next to us who were eating it correctly in the middle of their argument who saved me from an artichoke ileus. Mom was upset about something, and dad and kid were trying to calm her down. It was pretty nice dinner entertainment for me.) 

Below is a picture of my entree. (”Gilled Polenta - Our delicious Parmesan cornmeal cakes topped with mozzarella and provolone, Mama Lil's sweet hot peppers and a zesty marinara—served with sautéed kale, leeks and garlic”.)

We braved the threat of further cold and more shivering by ordering local Lopez Island Creamery ice cream for desert. I had a scoop of blueberry (which was life changing) and a scoop of chocolate, while my husband ordered the ice cream cake. I spent the remainder of the trip trying to locate the ice cream in whatever town we were in. 

I passed out in the rental car on the way to Everett, Washington. I forgot to mention that they must have been out of economy cars because we ended up with a Kia Sorrento. We got a kick out of that, but figured it was probably better than a Chevy Spark and the like for making our way through mountain roads.

Now, that I’m home, whenever I’m trying to go to sleep, one of the peaceful moments of my life I try to recollect comes from this day. I actually have a moment like this from every day of all of my trips, normally.

The moment was when we had finally had enough of the cold on the upper deck of the catamaran, and we found ourselves a seat inside of the heated lower deck room. We were sitting on one of the seats flipping through the binder that had names and photos of all of the orca identified in the area. I’m not sure why I felt so relaxed in that moment. Maybe it was the refuge of the heater that brought contentment to my spirit. Every time I look at the photo below, it makes me really, really happy. I am thankful for the orcas that brought us there. I am thankful for the decisions that brought us to that moment.