Tuesday July 29 – San Juan Island Whale Watching and Ferry to Anacortes

On Sunday, we got up fairly early, given that we had spent a rather uncomfortable night in the tent with frogs nearby. Today was whale day, first from land, then from the sea.

However, we first had to solve the mystery of Selma´s lost Kindle. So we went to the hotel, the lost and found and to the stops we had made the day before, but to no avail. Then, by pure chance, we looked into the cupboard where it should always be just to find out – that it was there!

After the day was saved, we went to Lime Kiln State park and wanted to whale watch. They were around, we could see them spout water, but they did not come close. Then we had to leave to get to our whale watching cruise on time. And just when we pulled out of the state park, Klaus saw them right there. We stopped again, jumped out of the car, and saw several Orcas really, really close. One even jumped!

After that, we went back to Friday Harbor. Selma and Markus got in line for the boat, Klaus and Erik stored the RV and packed the bags. We were just in time and had a really nice, small boat with about 10 people. We cruised for about 40 minutes until we hit probably the same group of orcas that we had just seen from land. The guide told us that the first one was probably Granny, the 101 years old boss of the pod. She always went ahead to find the best fishing grounds. After her were a small group of 4 and then another group of 3. First, the captain placed the boat in their course and turned off the engine, so they passed us by really nicely. Then we followed them a very long time, until we reached the turning point. There, again, the captain put the boat in front of them and turned off the engine. And again, they passed us by beautifully, even with one jump!

Then we cruised back the other way, and got in line for the ferry. We ate Fish and Chips for the last time at Friday Harbor in the evening sun and then got on the ferry to Anacortes. Klaus had already reserved a campground for that night, so we just went there and that was it!