Pacific Northwest and Canada Vacation

This story begins almost one and a half years before this vacation had begun.  My most favorite animal is the Orca or Killer Whale.  Has been since I was very young.  Back in the winter of 2009, I came up with the idea to plan a trip to see Orca Whales in the wild.  Have seen them hundreds of times at the San Diego Sea World, and would love to see them in their natural habitat.  The first place that came to mind was Monterey.  Monterey is just a 6 hours drive away, and I know the city real well.  Over the summer of 2009, I would do research about prices, times of year the Orcas would be in the area, and whale watching companies.  In November of 2009, I looked into the whale watching companies while in Monterey for a 4-H conference, and had learned that the Orcas would be in the area in the spring.  I also learned that there was only about a 10-15% chance of spotting the Orcas when they are in the area.  As you can imagine, I wasn't too happy with those numbers.  When I got home, I did some research, and found the most perfect place to go to see Orcas.  San Juan Island, located in the Haro Strait in Washington State, where the chances of seeing Orca Whales are 90% of the time.  After learning about San Juan Island, I talked to my cousin Amanda, who lives in Portland, and had a plan.  The original plan was to fly up to Portland, then Amanda and I would drive up to San Juan Island to see the whales.  That plan shortly failed, as Amanda was deployed to Afghanistan.  I decided to begin giving this idea of a trip to the parents.  They originally pushed it aside, because they were hoping to go to Croatia in the summer of 2010.  After bugging them with this trip idea, I finally got the parents interested, and we booked our flights before planning anything.  Slowly we planned out the trip.  We went to San Juan Island, Vancouver B.C. Canada, and Seattle, Washington, from July 6-July 14, 2010.  Below is the day by day story of this trip.  We saw and did many things, and happy that I finally got to see Orcas in the wild.  I also want to say thank you to my parents for supporting this trip, for it wouldn't have happened without you!


Day 1 | Traveling North| July 6, 2010


The beginning part of this day seemed to feel as if time was moving at half speed.   I woke up around  8 in the morning.  Our flight didn't leave until 3:00 pm from Ontario Airport, so I purposely didn't plan to pack until this morning.  By the time I was awake and moving around, the parents have already been awake and packing their things.  They never seem to make packing easy.  They spend half the time complaining about things that they may need or about how things should be packed.  I try to ignore them, for packing isn't that hard.  They make it sound like it is rocket science.  We finally hit the road for Ontario Airport.  When we got there, we parked in the parking lot that was just $9 a day, which was the cheapest, and walked to the Southwest terminal.  Having to travel from Ontario on the weekends, it was nice to fly out on a weekday when the airport is empty.  We checked in, and got through security within 15 minuets.  After we went through security, we went to eat at Carl's Jr, then wait for our plane to arrive.  We got on the plane, and my sister and I sat in a row, and my parents sat in a row in front of us.  The plane was only 1/2 full, which made the flight very enjoyable.  We landed in San Jose, and had to switch planes.  We stopped at the Jamba Juice to get some awesomeness before boarding our next plane that took us to Seattle.  Right as our plane began to take off, there was a kid two rows back just crying and making a lot of noise.  I figured it would be a long two hour flight, but I seemed to have passed out, and woke up right as we were beginning to make our final decent into Seattle.  Just looking at the view from the plane as we were flying in was enough to get me excited.  The Puget Sound was just beautiful, and the skies were so clear compared to the brown disgusting air we have back home.  


After we landed, we picked up our luggage, and headed to get the rental car.  We had three large suitcases and a smaller suitcase along with backpacks and camera stuff.  It was a challenge but we were able to fit everything in.  Our rental car was a Lincoln.  Very nice Lincoln.  We just sat in the car, and right away you knew that the car rides were going to be so comfortable.  When traveling, my parents seem to work in interesting ways.  My mom uses the maps, and can navigate real well.  My dad on the other hand, makes assumptions based off feelings and his surroundings.  Lets just say, most of their talking in the car was debates about were to go.  It would start here with the location of our hotel.  They didn't bring directions for the hotel.  They just figured they could find it, since it was right next to the airport.  Lucky for me, I tend to pay attention to my surroundings, most of the time, and right as we left the rental car area, I spotted our hotel, and got up there.  We stayed at the Ramada Inn SeaTac.  When we first walked into the lobby of the hotel, my sister got excited, because there was a asian restaurant in the lobby.  I on the other hand was hoping we would leave the hotel for dinner to start our adventure on this vacation.  We went up into our room, and then everyone but me wanted to just stay at the hotel and eat at the asian restaurant.  I decided to not put up a fight because I would of lost, so we just ate there, then went back to our room.  Afterwards we just chilled in the hotel room.  I was on the internet on my computer until i got tired.  My parents ordered a roll away bed for Ashley to sleep in, but the hotel took forever, and we needed to get to bed, so she and I was forced to share a bed.  Not sure why.  We always used to have one of us sleep on the floor.  It sucked, but I got over it.  The next day would be a good day. 


Day 2 | Arrival to Friday Harbor| July 7, 2010


The morning started out early.  Well, earlier than what I am used to.  I woke up at 7 am, and right away jumped out of the bed and got into the shower.  When I got out of the shower, I was hoping the rest of the family would spring into action, for I am very excited to get out to San Juan Island.   Things didn't move as fast as I would have liked.  When everyone was finally ready to go, we walked down to Denny's, just a few blocks away for breakfast.  We finally began heading north to Anacortes around 10:15.  

90 miles later, we arrived at the ferry dock in Anacortes, and we just missed the noon ferry to Friday Harbor.  We parked the car in line, and had to chill for the next ferry to Friday Harbor, which left at 2:45 pm.  For those who know me, there are times I really don't like waiting.  I have been waiting for over a year to get out to Friday Harbor, and this just added to the waiting.  To kill some time, Ashley and I walked over to the food place, and got some lunch.  After eating lunch, we walked over to a look out to a beach and the ferry dock.  It was very beautiful view of the water and Mt. Baker covered with snow in the distance.  I noticed a path that went down the hill to the beach.  Of course, I went right down there after grabbing my camera.  The beach was different than what im used to.  The shore were made of small rocks, and a few logs that have washed up on shore.  It was low tide, so it made it more fun to explore.  The closer you got to the water, the beach would be filled with algae and sea weed.  A part of me started to get curious about how long a low and high tide because a good portion of the rocks on the beach had tons of barnacles attached to them.  We walked down the beach, and started to notice a few moon jellies washed up on the shore.   When we arrived to near the end of the beach, we noticed that my dad had kinda followed to take his own photos.  

We killed about an hour exploring the beach.  As we headed back to the car, my mom pointed out a dragonfly on a tree.  I ran back to the car to change my lens to my new telephone lens and tried it out.  I had learned that its harder to focus with a telephoto when you are zoomed in completely.  The rest of the time, I just chilled in the car.  It was kinda warm, and it felt worse with the higher humidity, which I don't do well with humidity.  The ferry finally arrived, and we drove on.  Once we parked the car, I got out, and headed right to the lower passenger deck, and chilled on the outside view.  I sent the entire hour ferry ride standing outside just watching the San Juan Islands come closer, and pass a few of the islands.  While on the ferry, I was busy snapping tons of photos of the awesome views.  While passing some of the islands, you can see the awesome homes that are on the shores.  Didn't expect to see as many people live on the islands as I saw.  The ferry made a stop first at Lopez Island to drop people off, then we headed into Friday Harbor.  It felt so good to finally see Friday Harbor from the ferry, and I was excited to get going on an adventure to explore San Juan Island.  

We drove off the ferry, and drove up the major road just about 1/2 of a mile to get to our hotel.  We stayed at the Earthbox Motel and Day Spa.   When we first got there, we made sure we got a roll a way bed for my sister, but realized it wouldn't fit in the hotel room.  The lady instead brought a futon style floor mat which would work just the same. When we got into the hotel, we noticed there was no air conditioning, for it is never needed because of how good the weather is in the summer.  There is a heater for the cold winters. After we got settled down in the hotel room, we walked right now Spring St, which is the main road in Friday Harbor with tons of shops and restaurants.  By this time, we were starving, so we first looked for a place to eat.  Some places we couldn't go, because they didn't have anything vegetarian for my sister to eat.   We had dinner at the Blue Water Grill.  I had Halibut Fish and Chips.  It was awesome.   Because we were not used to having bright sunlight still at 9:00, we had dinner late, and by the time we ate, most of the stores were closed when we finished eating.  We walked through a few stores that were still open, then we walked back to the hotel.  I wanted to stay up to see how many stars we can see in the sky, but I got tired before the sky was dark enough to see stars.  There was still some light out at 10:30, but that was when I was able to see the first star, from our hotel room anyway.  I killed time by browsing the internet while I was waiting for the skies to get dark. 

 I decided to go to bed around 11, for I know that the next day would be a great day, and I would finally get to accomplish one of my old childhood dreams.  To see Orca Whales in the wild.

Day 3 | Exploring San Juan Island and Haro Strait | July 8, 2010

This day, which I was hoping to be the best day of the vacation, didn't start how I would have liked.  I didn't get much sleep the night before, because of how hot it was in the hotel room.  Even with a window fan at full blast, it didn't really work out to well.  Along with the heat, because I was bored trying to sleep, some thoughts had gotten into my mind that caused some conflicts in feelings.  With some of these feelings, it dropped me down into a low. Along with being down on this low, I was feeling a little sick, for last nights dinner didn't exactly agree with me.  Because of all that was going on, I really just wanted to be alone to recollect my thoughts and to have some privacy.  Everything was bugging me from how my parents were and even my sister adding to the problems.  I was very disappointed on how this day started, especially since today is the day I have been excited for the past few months.  

Once we got going, we walked on down to a restaurant called The Doctor's Office:  A Treatment Cafe.  At this point, I really didn't want to eat anything, but I got a breakfast sandwich.  The sandwich ended up being sooooo good because of how fresh it was.  The cafe had a great view of the harbor and the ferry dock.  What helped me a lot in the very down mood I was in, was the quietness of Friday Harbor.  It was nice to have a peaceful morning.  I more figured it would be packed with tourists and loud, but there wasn't too many people about.  After breakfast, we went to get our boarding passes for our whale watching tour. After that, my parents wanted to drive around the island and do some exploring.  I personally wanted to go back to the hotel and chill, because I was still feeling real crappy, but I went with them.  Its funny how small the island really is when your driving it, but when you look at a map, it looks huge.  Kinda funny how that happens.  

We first stopped at the Pelindaba Lavender Farm.  The farm was located kinda the western side of the island.  I probably would of enjoyed being at the farm more if I didn't feel like crap.  This farm provides lavender products to all over Washington state and the world.  We were lucky to be there when all the fields were fully in bloom.  They started their harvest two days before we came out to visit.  They had many different kinds of Lavender planted around.  We went into the store, and they had everything made out of Lavender from soaps, decorations, and food.  I did a quick walk through, then I just sat outside trying to recover.  I later walked back in, and tried some Lavender honey.  It was actually really good.  In the back, we noticed they had lavender ice tea and lemonade.  We decided to buy a few cups.  I had a cup of lavender lemonade.  It had a interesting taste, but was good.  I was slowly drinking it since I wasn't feeling to well.  After sitting for awhile, my parents and sister finally came outside, and we got back into the car to go to our next location.  While I was drinking the lemonade, my stomach was starting to feel better.  Not sure what made it better, but had a feeling the lavender in the lemonade made a difference.  

We drove out to the Lime Kiln Point State Park.  We visited this state park, for this place is considered the best place in the world to see Orca Whales from land.  As we parked in the parking lot, I was starting to notice a change, and that I was starting to feel better, which made me happy because I didn't want to get on a boat later on in the day feeling the way I did.  I had a mission this day, and it was to see Orca Whales.  I walked right passed the visitor center and straight out to the look out point.  The view of Haro Strait from Lime Kiln Point was just beautiful.  It was such a clear day, that we were able to see across the entire strait and see the snow topped Olympic Mountains to the southwest of San Juan Island.  I took out my telephone lens in my camera and used it as  binoculars to scan the strait looking for any signs of life.  We spent a good 45 mins out at the look out waiting to get a chance to see whales.  Had no luck.  My dad walked down to the light house, but I was determined to stay at the lookout.  We walked back to the visitor center.  On the way back, a garden snake went across the trail, which was cool to see.  In the visitor center,  they had cool exhibits on Orcas and other wildlife.  Also had some awesome gifts of Orcas.  I noticed behind the counter was a map of San Juan Island with Orca magnets.  These magnets are placed were Orcas have been spotted.  Based off that map, it showed that the famous J-Pod was located on the south western side of the Island, about 5 miles south of Lime Kiln Point.  Right away, I got excited, and I knew that meant we will see them on our Orca Whale Watching Tour.  Time was getting near for us to board our boat, so we headed back to the hotel.

Our boat, the Western Prince II, leaves Friday Harbor at 2 PM for the Orca Whale Watching Tour, and we had to be at the boat by 1:30, or so they said.  My dad doesn't have a good sense of time.  My mom is trying to give him directions to get back to Friday Harbor, and he decided to go different ways to see some more things on the way back to the city.  This just pissed me off, because I wasn't going to be late and miss the boat, which is the major reason why we were on this trip. We finally get back to the hotel 30 mins before we were supposed to be there.  In that time we had to find food, and get to the boat.  When we left, we only had 20 mins to get on the boat.  I was determined to get there, so I left my parents behind while I walked fast.  We had to stop at the grocery store, which was on the way, to pick up pre-made sandwiches from the deli.  We grabbed our food, got a drink, and while in the check in line, the parents were still not there.    As we finished paying, and walked out the store, the parents just walked in.  I decided to wait for them, but almost left them behind.  When we finally left the grocery store, we had 5 mins to get to the boat.  We got to the boat dock, and didn't see anyone there.  A person on the boat told us they will board the boat at 1:45.  I was like WTF!  They told us we had to be here at 1:30.  I was a little pissed, but I didn't let it get to me.  While waiting, noticed Moon Jellies just swimming around in the bay.  We boarded the boat, and got into our seats.  I chose to sit on the port side of the boat right next to the head.  The main reason, because there was a door to the bow of the ship, which I was hopping to get out to when we get out of the harbor.  32 people total was on the boat, and because everyone was there early, we were able to leave a little early.

We had to be seated in the stern part of the boat for the rules, but once they let us go anywhere, I left my stuff (except my camera) and headed to the bow.  I quickly ate lunch while they were going over the rules, but I didn't finish.  I was too excited to eat everything.  Some people from the starboard side beat me, but at least I was at the bow more to the port side.  This would be were I stayed for the entire three hour boat tour.  We slowly headed south from San Juan Island, then headed west to enter Haro Strait where the whales were located.  Along the way, we saw a few harbor seals swimming together.  Then we saw a male stellar seal, which was very rare for this time of year.  After spotting the seals, we headed over passed cattle pass to get out into the strait.  Near cattle point, we sailed over to a spot that has almost a 20 foot tide difference.  To show how fast the water moves, the captain of the boat shut down the engines, and just let the water move the boat.   The boat ended up rotating, as if it was a car doing donuts, in the water several times.  While we were sitting there going in circles by just the power of the water, you can hear the millions of gallons of water rushing on into the area.  I get amazed at some of the amazing power you can find on this earth, and just this small experience reminds me that you don't want to have mother nature as an enemy, for mother nature will always win.  After about 15 mins, the captain turned on the engines, and we continued to the Haro Strait.

We passed Cattle Point, and headed north on the western shores of San Juan Island.  It was so beautiful that I was totally speechless on how to explain in.  You might see the photos, and can guess that is is beautiful, but nothing beats being there in person.  Had some great views of skipper boats sailing on the strait, with the cattle point lighthouse to the right, a sea plane flying over the lighthouse, and to have the Olympic mountains about 80 miles in front of you. As we passed cattle point, all my problems had seemed to disappear, and I  can into a zone that I rarely get to have.  It almost felt as if I was just at peace with nature.  I really wanted to just be on my own boat, so I can just enjoy this all day everyday.  We headed north, and it seemed as if there was nothing for miles.  The water was so calm, I couldn't believe it.  I would look out into the horizon, and can't see anything.  It was a good 15 minutes before we saw what was ahead of us, and those 15 minutes felt like an eternity since I knew what was ahead of us.  Finally, a long dorsal fin popped out of the water in the horizon.  It was a Orca.  As we got closer, a naturalist that was with us on the bow was able to identify the whale based off the patch on the dorsal fin.  She had with her a book that had the family tree of all the Orca Pods in the area.  I forgot the name, but we found a male of the L-Pod.  We got up to 100 yards from the whale.  The boat isn't allowed to get any closer to the whale because back in 2005, the Orca was placed on the Endangered Species List, making them protected.  Lucky, I had my new telephoto lens on my Nikon to get better photos than anyone else can from the boat.  My camera was constantly going off, and I watching the whales more through my camera that with just my eyes   We sailed along side the whale going north towards False Bay.  After a few minutes, two other whales showed up, but they weren't Orcas.  They were Minke Whales, which are a baleen whale.  It made sense to see these whales, because as you looked at the water, you can tell it is rich in plankton and possibility krill.  The water is also packed with salmon, which is why the Orcas are in the area.  After awhile, we saw the Minke Whales and the single Orca came together, and swam together, which the naturalist claimed was really rare to see.  

At this point, we started to not be alone anymore in the water, for other whale watching tours had arrived.  Because of the traffic on the water increasing, the whales headed inland, more into False Bay, which they could since it was high tide.  I began looking ahead, and with no time at all, we spotted two more Orcas in the horizon.  This time, there was two females.  It was a mother and her calf.  You can tell they are females from how small the dorsal fins are compared to the males.  These whales are also apart of the L-Pod.  After about 10 mins, the one male Orca began coming north from False Bay, and eventually joined the two females.  What got me even more excited was the fact that we could hear some very very faint songs coming from those Orcas, and it made me want to get closer to hear their songs even closer.  Luckily, because I was on the bow, I was near the helm, which the captain had his window open, so I was able to hear the whale songs more clearly from his hydrophone that is attached to the bottom of the hull of the boat.   More and more whale watching boats came around, and after looking at those boats, and saw how packed they were, I was glad I picked this captain.  Also could hear those boats just talking away about stuff, and not being quite so you can just enjoy the whales presents.  The other boats also tended to continue on, instead of staying with the whales.  At this point, I was very pleased i picked the right tour group.  After being with these orcas for about 45 mins, we had to turn around, which I didn't want to happen.  Right before we leaved, in the horizon, we could see another Orca dorsal fin, and I just wanted to steal the boat and head up there.  We had to turn around, and headed back to Friday Harbor. We spotted some more harbor seals, a bald eagle, a bald eagle nest, tons of Moon Jelly fish, some Sea Nettle Jelly Fish (Which are my favorite jelly fish) and passed by a island full of Cormorant and black oystercatcher birds, which was located near Cattle Point.  We were out on the water for a little bit over three hours, and it was the best thing in the world.  On the ride back, most everyone on the bow went to sit in the sitting area in the stern.  I stayed on the bow to have a full view of the area, and had a chance to talk to the naturalist for awhile about the whales and the area.  

 

Over all, we saw 4 Orca Whales, which was a sub pod of the major L-Pod, which is a family of 36 Orca Whales.  All those whales are in the area feeding on Salmon, and are fully spread apart.  I was very satisfied for seeing those whales, but I wanted to see more.  We decided to walk about to the hotel, grab a few things, and get back into the car and head right back to Lime Kiln Point, for the whales were headed for that direction.  We were driving on the West Side Rd, headed north to Lime Kiln Point, and while driving on up, my mom and I were watching the water just waiting to see some whales.  Just before you get to the point, the road takes you to a higher elevation on cliffs.  There are some spots to park on the side of the road to see the view.  The first spot was packed of people, and right away I was expecting they saw .  After passing the first spot, my mom and I caught in a split second a Orca jumping, or what they call breaching out of the water.  We pulled off to the side, and got out of the car to get a closer look.  I walked down the road to a few rocks.  Finally spotted the whale that had jumped.  Sadly, it was too far to take a photo of.  Was happy to see the whale, but not to happy since it didn't jump again.  After watching that whale for just a few minutes, we spotted two more whales to the south.  We were lucky we spotted them, because they swam south, and went out of our view of sight in about 5 minutes after we spotted them.  This was just south of Deadman Bay.  We arrived at Lime Kiln, and we killed about 30 mins looking out for whales, but had no luck.  While we were chilling, I was reading a Orca Field Guide book I bought from the visitor center there in Lime Kiln just earlier that day.  While at the point, we saw fish jumping out of the water, and saw a seal chilling along the shore.  

After getting some sun, we decided to leave the point and head south towards Cattle Point since those whales were traveling south.  Walking about to the car, I heard some noises in the forest, so I slowed down to look around.  I spotted a deer that was about ten feet away.  The parents just walked right passed it without notice.  On the way down there, we stopped at False Bay, and didn't see anything, so we continued south.  After we passed south beach, we pulled off to the side of a cliff that had a great view of the area.  We first spotted a deer and two babies with her, that crossed the road.  My dad started following them for photos, but I looked around more.  I looked to the south, and saw a small grey animal.  Wasn't too sure what it was for a few seconds, then another one popped out, and I realized it was two baby foxes playing with each other.  I yelled at my mom and sister go get out of the car, because they stayed inside.  We watched the two foxes play around on the hill.  It was way cool.  Finally my dad realizes they are there, and starts walking on the cliff closer to the foxes.  I told him to stay put, but he doesn't listen, and he got to close, which forced the foxes back into their den.  He backed away, and after the foxes realized we were not a threat, they came back out to play.  At this point, I started looking at the water for whales, and the hills for mom fox, for she shouldn't be too far away.  After awhile, we got back into the car, and headed down to Cattle Point, for the sun was starting to set, and we still wanted to see whales.  We got to Cattle Point, and noticed there was no whales, so we turned around. 

As we were approaching the turn off for South Beach, I spotted an Orca just off the beach.  We turned down the road, and saw that other tourists had stopped on the side of the road.  They had found mom fox, and was right at their door.  I was worried that those tourists were feeding the animal.  We stopped, and the other car left.  Mom fox began coming to us, and began circling the car.  I knew that the mom figured we were a threat, and wanted to protect her babies, which we spotted at the fence before the road.  They crossed the road, and we were trying to take photos of the foxes.  My dad then did something very very stupid.  He got out of the car.  Mom fox was circling the car, and was going to protect her babies at any cost.  My dad got very very close, and I was just waiting for that fox to attack him.  We tried to get him into the car, but he wouldn't listen.  Finally after about 2 mins, we finally got him back in the car.  He got a little too close to the mom, and I was very very shocked that the mom didn't attack him.  After about 15 mins, we headed down the road to the parking lot for the beach.  I got out of the car, and went out to the beach.  Had to climb over tons of washed up logs that was on the beach, and then went on a look out for the whale I spotted.  Had no luck.  We spent too much time with the foxes, and we missed getting real close to the whale, which might had swam north while we were on the road.  After killing some time at the beach, we got in the car, and headed to Friday Harbor, for it was getting late, and we needed to eat dinner.  On the way out, we spotted two other adult foxes walking down to the beach.  We parked at the hotel, and walked down to the harbor.  We ate at a restaurant called Downriggers.  We ate out on the patio, which over looked the harbor.  We had a very nice and quite relaxing dinner.  I had shrimp scampi over rice, and man it was really really good.  We left the restaurant around 10:00 pm, and we walked on back to the hotel were we crashed from having a very long day.  


This day would be considered my most favorite day, for this is the day that one of my childhood dreams had came true.  I fell in love with San Juan Island this day, and I had more time to stay on the island.  I also wish I had some friends with me, so I could have shared the experience with them, but I can always bring them up here in the future.  Saw 8 Orca Whales total, and it was awesome!




Day 4 | Last day on San Juan Island | July 9, 2010


This would be our last day on San Juan Island.  In the later afternoon, we would head back to the mainland via ferry, and head north towards Canada.  We slowly woke up, and packed up all of our things.  Then we checked out of our hotel.  After checking out, we walked back into town.  We first had breakfast at a place called The Bean Coffee and Espresso Place.  Afterwards, we walked around to look at some shops.  I really wish I had more money, for I would buy some really nice Orca Whale stuff to take home, but I don't have the money, so I just looked at the awesome items.  Afterwards, we went back to the car.  Decided to give our chance one more time at spotting Orca whales by heading back down to South Beach and Cattle Point.  This next section of the blog about South Beach was written that night, and posted on facebook.  Here it is again.

It was around 10 in the morning, and we left Friday Harbor to try to spot Orca whales from land on the other side of the island.  We first headed for South Beach, which is near American Camp on the San Juan Island National Historical Park.  After spending some time looking around the water, I got bored and walked north on the beach towards some exposed rocks due to low tide.  Saw a few tide pools, so I explored the area for about 30 mins.

Noticed a small beach section just passed the rocks, then more tide pools, so I walked over to check them out.  Nothing real exciting, so I walked back to the other section of the beach while my dad heads out to the small beach section.  A few mins later, my dad calls me back over to the small beach, saying he had almost stepped on a baby seal (They blend into the pebbled beach, and he was looking out for whales so didn't see it until he was right on top of it, almost stepping on the seal pup).  I get over to the beach, and spotted the Harbor Seal Pup.  I right away garbed my camera, change to my telephoto lens, and take a few photos.  I noticed from the close up view that something was wrong.  With that I noticed it was having issues walking up on the beach.  I put the camera down, and looked out into the sea, looking for the mother.  Had no luck spotting the mom.  I knew the seal needed help, but I kept my distance to 35ish feet away.  My dad is still just taking pics.  A family starts coming towards us, and I watched them, for if they got close I was going to ask them to give the pup some room to breath.

Once I felt it was safe to leave the pup, I grabbed my dad and sister, told them we have to go to the ranger station at American camp, and get that seal some help.  My dad thought it was fine, which I knew it wasn't since I know more about wildlife than he does.  I finally got them into the car, and we headed north a few miles to the ranger station.  We arrived, and I got out of the car with my camera, and went right to the guy at the front desk.  I tell him what happened, and showed the pics.  He calls out a ranger that was in charge, and he saw the photos I took.  Right away, he said the pip looked dehydrated and he will call a few rangers to get out there to make sure the pip is safe from people and then call out the experts in to help the pip.  I showed him were I spotted the seal on the beach, and they went into action.  The first ranger I talked to told me that I more than likely just saved that pup's life.  When I got home, I looked up the true location that I found the Seal pup.  Here are the coordinates:         N 48° 27.363  W 123° 0.621 .  


I waited there for a few moments in case they needed me for anything, and I watched as a few rangers left in a hurry to get the weak pup.   Then we looked around the visitor center, then headed of to drive to the north end of the Island.  At this point, I felt that I really did a good thing, and wish I could have stayed and even did more help, but I know that the professionals wouldn't want me to be in the way, so I let them do their job while I continued to be on vacation.  


We made a quick stop at a Oyster Farm, near Roche Harbor.  There was nothing there except a spot to buy oysters and clams.  There was a pier, but visitors arn't allowed to go out.  I saw the tons of markers in the water that show were the underwater containers are that are holding the Oysters they are raising using the water.  I learned from the TV show Dirty Jobs how they farm clams on the east coast, and this is just the same, but with different animals. After the farm,  we drove up to Roche Harbor, but noticed it seemed like the super rich section of the island.  We didn't have parking permits and the parking lots were packed, so we just drove through to see the harbor, and left.  We drove more around the island, then headed back down to Friday Harbor.  We parked the car in line for the 4:50 pm ferry to Anacortes, and walked around the town.  We had lunch at a new restaurant that opened this week, called Rumorhill.  It was very very good.  Afterwards, the parents wanted to look around, but I was really in the mood to be away from them for awhile, so my sister and I walked down to the ferry dock.  We first looked at one store, and then just chilled enjoying the nice weather and the quite city.  


After awhile, the parents found us, and we just sat around until the ferry came.  While waiting to get onto the ferry, a lady came up to me to ask me if I heard anything about the seal pup.  At first I was confused.  She said that she was at the ranger station when I gave the report.  I told her that I didn't stay around to hear the outcome.  She then told me that they most likely found it and the San Juan Island Researchers will go out to save it.  She then told me that she was a local who lives just outside of Anacortes, and they get stories on the news many times of the same that I saw, baby seals that wash up on shore sick.  Unlike what I did, however, people who found those seals would take them, and try to either make them as pets or highly abuse them.  She gave me a very big thank you for doing the right thing, then walked away.  This made me feel extremely good, for I know I helped protect something in nature; which just happens to be something I would like to do as a career.  It really really felt good.  To save time, my sister and I just walked onto the ferry when it arrived while my dad and mom drove the car onto the ferry.  Unlike the last ferry ride, we just sat at a table on the lower passenger deck, and just relaxes as the ferry took us to the mainland.    Strangely, my parents sat on the other side of the ferry.  Not to sure if they just wanted to give us some space or not, but I was too tired to really care at that time.


I was truly sad that we were leaving San Juan Island, and I really would of liked to have been there a long time, and slowly enjoy the Island, instead of running all over the place, but in the end, I was happy I was able to get out here to this island.  At this time, I am planning to return in the summer of 2012, but we shall see what happens.  We arrived in Anacortes, and drove on out back to the 5 freeway, and headed north towards Canada.  We stopped in a town called Bellingham to stay the night.  We stayed at a Days Inn that night.  Just went to have a normal dinner at Ihop, and went back to the hotel to rest.


Day 5 | British Columbia, Canada | July 10, 2010


Woke up.  Got packed.  Had Breakfast.  Headed off to British Columbia, Canada.  More specific, Vancouver.  Only took us ten minutes to get to the Canadian Boarder.  I gave my passport to my parents, and we went through the boarder.  I have to say, crossing the boarder here is so much more beautiful and nicer than crossing down into Mexico.  As we enter Canada, I expected the same type of things as when I was in Alberta in July of 2007.  I have to say one thing different was the drivers.  They seemed to drive just as fast as us Californians, and almost worse.  I guess it can  be tempting since we were on a empty road, but as we got into cities, it was the same.  As we got into Vancouver, we first found the location of our hotel.  My parents stopped to get a map of the area from the hotel, even though we couldn't check in till the afternoon.  After we got a few maps, we planned to go to the Vancouver Aquarium, for we had heard many great things about the aquarium.  

The aquarium is located in Stanley Park, and we had no clue what to expect.  From our hotel, we drove through china town, and then through the major section of downtown to get to Stanley Park.  I know that every city tends to have some homeless, but Vancouver seemed to have tons of homeless.  Right as we had left china town, we turned down a street that was jam packed with homeless.  I mean it was about 3 or so blocks of homeless people just living there.  I had never seen anything like this before in a downtown.  We drove to Stanley park, following the signs to the aquarium.  I saw a sign for Totem Poles in the same direction as the aquarium, so I already had a plan of what to see after the aquarium.  Stanley Park was packed, but we were lucky to find a parking lot right near the aquarium entrance.   As we walked towards the aquarium entrance, I noticed a very big metal statue/water fountain of an Orca Whale.  It was very awesome.  

We stood in line to get our tickets, then got into the aquarium.  The aquarium had a different setup than the type of aquariums, which made it cool to look at.  The aquarium had its normal standard exhibits, just as any aquarium has.  The first exhibit that I really like was the Amazon exhibit.  Yes, it was very very humid in the exhibit which got really annoying within about 10 mins.   They had a small monkey, alligators, and tropical birds along with the fish.  The only other stuff that was really impressive was the outside exhibits.  They had seals, Beluga Whales, and Pacific White-Sided Dolphins.  We had lunch outside while looking at the Beluga Whales.  My parents wanted to wait there for a talk show about the whales.  I personally wasn't too interested, so Ashley and I went to the underwater viewing of the belugas.  After killing some time, we explored the other outside exhibits.  As we got close to the dolphins, we noticed it was packed with people.  It seemed that a dolphin show started the same time as the baluga whale presentation.  We watched the show, then went to find the parents.  It was harder to find since we don't have use of our phones because we are out of the country.  Finally found them, and we then looked at the frog exhibit, then to the gift shop.  I didn't really enjoy myself like I had hoped at the aquarium, but that was mainly because it was jam packed with people and kids, who just happened to be all rude and stuff.  Thats what we get for going on a weekend.  

After we left the aquarium, I found a map of Stanley Park, and found that the Toltem Poles were not that far away.  A small hiking trail, called the Brockton Point Trail, would have us cut through the forest, and strait to the poles.  It was a small hike, just below the mile mark.  The trail took us to a open field, which there was groups of people playing Cricket.  Past the field was a big gift shop, and right past that was the Toltem Poles.  We killed a few hours looking at them and the gift shop.  Then we went to do more exploring of Stanley Park.  Just south of the Toltem Poles is the water edge.  Went over there because you can see all of downtown Vancouver from there.  It was really cool.  Near the look out, I noticed there was a bike/walking path, that seemed to go around the entire park.  I was so jealous, and wish I had my bike to go around the park, for it was a very beautiful day.  We decided to walk around the Brockton Point, to enjoy the view of the area.  My mom didn't want to go, so she sat in the shade while we walked around.  It was another awesome mile walk.  Along the walk, we saw sea planes landing and taking off, two major cruise ships leaving (Most likely going to Alaska)  After the point, we hiked back through the very rich and beautiful forest to get to the car.  In total, we had a nice 2.4 mile hike/walk through forests and along the harbor.  I personally would have loved to spend the rest of the day in Stanley Park, off exploring, but it was time to leave, so we can see other parts of the city.  Also, my mom wouldn't have liked walking around anymore.

We headed back downtown, and to go to Gastown. My parents were arguing like normal about were to go and parking.  We finally got parked and walked down to Gastown.  At this point, we were hungry, so we went looking for food first, and then would look at the shops.  While walking around, we came across the world's first steam powered clock.  It was real cool to see, but we just kept on going, so we can get some food.  We saw a Old Spaghetti Factory, and we decided that would be were we are eating.  While there, we had learned that this was the first Old Spaghetti Factory of Canada, and was built in the 70's.  Kinda cool.  We finallly got out of there around 9, and all the shops had closed, or most of them, so we walked back to the car.  It too us forever to find our car, for we mistakes which parking garage we were in.  We got back to the hotel and called it a night.




Day 6 | Exploring Vancouver | July 11, 2010

 The day started out just the same as any other.  We left the hotel around 9:30, and headed out of the city to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  Now my expectation of this place was that we would be going though many suspension bridges in the forests of British Columbia.  Lets just say it didn't meet my standards.  This place ended up being more of a tourist trap, that was very expensive.  It seemed to be a very small section of a forest, to were people can go over the bridge an "experience nature".  The bridge was cool, but in sainly packed with people.  Afterwards, you can walk around the area that has signes and lakes and stuff, but that was about it.   They had a treetop area with very small suspension bridges, so you can see the treetops and experience nature better.  It was very very lame, for it just took you above the tourist areas.  Ashley and I sent about 5 mins walking around after going over the suspension bridge, than sat down and played cards for an hour until the parents showed up.  Along side with this, I didn't get much sleep the night before, because I had slept on the floor, so I had a splitting headache that didn't help me out at all.


Afterwards, my sister wanted to go to China town, so we drove to a parking lot between gastown and china town, and walked around.  My sister really wanted to eat at a Chinese food place, which i hate Chinese food, but lucky for me, no place there looked good to her and my parents so we didn't eat there.  While we were walking around, we found this oriental park that had a cool pond.  The pond had turtles and frogs, of course koi fish too. 






After spending a few hours shopping, we headed down to gastown.  My parents wanted to walk another way, and just ended up taking us through the same street I saw yesterday packed with homeless.  I literary was scared for my life, and I almost said screw you guys, im headed back.  We walked near but not passed all the homeless, but ran into a few.  We lived!!!! Got to gastown, and walked through and looked through all the shops.  We stopped at a mexican food place to have dinner.  It was really disappointing, it was ok, but nothing compared to the mexican food we have here in California.  We sat outside, and while eating, homeless people would try to ask us for money.  Gastown was filled with homeless asking for money.  I have been to many cities, and I have never come across as many homeless as I had here in Vancouver.  It truly is sad.  After dinner, we looked through some more shops, then headed back to the hotel.


Day 7 | Return to America | July 12, 2010 


In the morning, we once again packed up to leave the hotel, had breakfast at Mc. Donald's, and headed on out to go one more place in Canada before heading back down into Washington.  We adventured north of Vancouver, to go see a lighthouse at a place called lighthouse park, located at Point Atkinson.  I figured we would just drive to a light house, look at it, and head on down to Seattle.  It seemed light house park was the entire point, and had hundreds of hiking trails, and one of them took you to the light house.  We started to hike, and it was very beautiful.  The trails took us through the forests.  The kind of forests I was expecting to see the other day at the suspension bridge, but that turned out to be a tourist trap.  My dad said that we needed to be on the road at noon, so I made sure I payed attention to the time.  Ashley and I got way ahead of the parents, and without a map tried to find the lighthouse.  We started going down this one hiking trail, and I had a bad feeling that we were going the wrong way, so I had us turn around.  Lucky for me I listened to my instinct and turned around, because we did end up going the wrong way.


We arrived at the light house, or I should say light house look out.  When we arrived, there were was a group of asian students.  They must have been on a field trip, and split into groups to see different parts of the park.  We waited for them to pass, and then we walked on up to the view point.  We saw a single tower light house with a beautiful view of the Strait of Georgia.  I have to say, this entire park is very beautiful, and if anyone reading this has a chance, go out to this park.  It is very quite,  the forests are beautiful, and you can hike on trails with awesome views of the strait and forests together.  We only had about 5 mins of peace and quite before another school group showed up, so Ashley and I booked it out of there.  We noticed the time, and we had only 30 mins to get back to the car before it was noon.  No sign of our parents anywhere.  We hiked on back to the car, and I was bummed because I would have stayed at that park for the entire day.  We got back to the car, and there were no parents.  We had about 10 mins before noon, so we waited at the car hoping they would show up soon.  Normally we would have called them, but all our phones are off because we are in Canada.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  I was getting pissed because we wanted to leave at noon, and they were nowhere to be found.  Finally, the parents showed up, and we had been waiting at the car for 55 mins.  We got on the road, and stopped at a safeway to get some deli sandwiches, and headed on the drive down to Seattle.  

I passed out in the car, and woke up to my parents asking for my passport as we entered the boarder.  We got through the boarder in about 15 mins.  I passed right back out, and woke up again right near the time we arrived into Seattle.  We arrived in the Seattle area around 5:40, and we made a stop off to see something before we headed to the hotel.  We stopped at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks on the Lake Washington Shipping Canal.  For those who don't know what Locks are, they are a way for boats/ships to move up and down the river when there is a dam blocking their way.  On the north side of the dam was the locks.  A boat would get in, and the water level would either rise or lower depending on were they are headed.  Its just how the Panama Canal works.  Right as we got there, a boat that was headed out to the Puget Sound.  After the boat left, we continued to the south side of the dam.  Back on New Years of 2007, I went to a dam just like this with Amanda and her family on the Columbia River in Oregon, so I was expecting to see a fish latter.  What do you know, the dam had a fish latter.  The first part of the latter we saw was the water pouring out from the dam.  It would be for those fish swimming back to the ocean.  Since it wasn't that time of year, no fish were swimming out.  I did notice, however, that Salmon were jumping out of the water heading up river.  Also spotted a very smart seal who came up from the sound to get some fish.  

After walking passed the dam, i spotted the official fish latter, where the Salmon travel up to get to their location to spawn.  It seems that this would be one of the few fish latters in the world that brings the fish from salt water to fresh water, which was kinda exciting to know.  Saw some really good sized Salmon jump up in the air, and move up the latter.  It didn't seem like there were that many fish in the water, which was real surprising.  Well I got bored of watching the water, so I was curious to see if there was a underwater viewing of the latter.  Looked down the path, and noticed there was a path that broke off and took you underground.  It was the underwater viewing.  It seems that there were hundreds of Salmon in the water, moving up.  Just can't see them from above.  Learned that these Salmon were the Sockeye Salmon traveling up river in order to spawn.  After spending a good 15 mins at the underwater viewing, I noticed the parents didn't come down, so I went back up to the top view of the fish latter, and noticed that the parents didn't realize that there was a underwater viewing.  So we spent another 15 mins or so to wait on them to see the underwater viewing.  Normally it would be ok, but we were tired and starving so it was a little buggy, but I got over it.  


As it got later, we headed over to the hotel, and looked online for placed to eat.  We stayed at the same hotel we did when we first arrived in Seattle on day 1.  We freshed up, and went to Olive Garden for dinner.  It took me some convincing, for I love Olive Garden, and the parents hadn't had them in a long time because they tend to like Old Spaghetti and don't go much of anywhere else.  While at dinner, our waiter was amazing, because she was very nice and able to tell us about were to go in Seattle.  Afterwards, we went to the hotel and went to bed.  This time I got the bed and my sister got the roll away.


Day 8| Seattle | July 13, 2010

We took a break from being in the car, and took public transportation to get around today.  Just a few blocks from our hotel was the airport train station, so we woke up, had breakfast, and headed down to the station.  We paid for our tickets, $5.00 for a round trip ticket, which wasn't that bad, and got onto the train, which was the Sound Transit Blue Line Light Rail.  The train itself was very very clean, and the station was also well kept.  We took the Blue Line all the way to the end, which is the Westlake Station.  From that station, we would be able to walk just a few blocks down to Pikes Place Market, which we all wanted to see.

We got to the station, which was just one of the most beautiful and nicest stations I have been in, and headed to the city streets.  We got going the right way, and before long, we were at Pikes Place Market.  Now we got into the area around 11, and I was starving.  My dad figured we can get breakfast on the road, and it took a little too long to get into town.  Right away, I wanted to look for the first Starbucks.  We first walked south on the market, looking at some of the stores.  Tons of fruit all over the place, and there was one fruit I saw that I didn't know existed.  Golden Raspberries.  I so wanted to try one, but I didn't want to take one or buy a a lot of them, so I just let me be curious of what they taste like.  We saw the fish market, but I looked up the street and saw a starbucks.  Now I figured it wasn't the first one, because it didn't seem like the photos I had seen, but at that point, I needed something to eat, so I got a frap and a cheese danish.  

With my stomach happy, we went back to Pikes Place, and went to the world famous Pikes Place Fish Market.  If someone ordered something, the workers would yell at what was ordered, and then would throw what was ordered.  Got to see some very large fish thrown about, and even cut.  After trying to get some photos, which failed, we walked around all the shops.  Tons of fruit, cheese, flowers, and art.  Pikes Place was awesome.  While on the west side of the market, I spotted the first starbucks, and went right to it.  Went in, looked around, took some photos, and that was it.  After Starbucks, we continued to walk around.  While there, we ran across a store that made homemade Russian Piroshkies.  I ordered a Potato, Onion, and Cheese Piroshky.  It was really really good, but not enough to fill me up.  My parents found some clam chowder, which I dont like, but I found a pizza place right next door, so I had that for lunch.  

After lunch, we wanted to adventure out to the Space Needle, and we had learned that there was a monorail that left from the Westlake Station, and took you right to it.  It saved us about a 15-20 block walk.  We went back, got our tickets, and took the monorail to Seattle Center Park, which was the location of the 1962 Worlds Fair, which was why the Space Needle was built.  It was to look like a alien structure since it was a alien theme fair that year.  We got out tickets and went to the elevator to get to the top.  It was a very beautiful view from the Space Needle,  Got to see downtown Seattle, the surrounding areas, and the Puget Sound.  What I was hopping to see was Mt. Rainer, but there were clouds in the sky that day, which just happened to cover the volcano.  With this visit, I had now been to the top of all the tallest/most famous structures in America, and all within the past 6 years, which felt like I did a lot of traveling the past decade.   

An hour later, we headed down to the gift shop.  Afterwards, we had learned that there was a museum called EMP.  Later did we learn it was EMP| SFM, which stood for Experience Music Project | Science Fiction Museum.  We first went to the SFM section.  The only things I knew was the Star Wars, Star Trek, and Terminator stuff.  It was two stories.  The one story really impressed me, because the floor wayout was of the Millennium Falcon.  Once finished with the SFM, we went to the EMP.  EMP wasn't that impressive to me.  Had tons of guitars and stuff, and a interactive area, but I really wasn't impressed and didn't really like that section of the museum.  We left the museum around 6:00, and we got back on the monorail to get to Westlake Station, then took the Blue Line on the rail to go back to the hotel.  When we got to the hotel, we decided we would just go to Sizzler to have the all you can eat salad bar.  With the day coming to an end, we went back to our hotel, and called it a night.  Tomorrow would be a very long day, for it is the day we return home.


Day 9 | Last Day of Vacation| July 14, 2010


We packed up the car of all our stuff, checked out of the hotel, and headed on to do one last thing before leaving the Pacific Northwest.  We headed to Pioneer Square in Seattle to do the Seattle Underground Tour.  We parked in the parking lot, and walked up to the square.  Now when I travel, I make sure I know were we are going.  My parents didn't know were in Pioneer Square the underground tour was.  We first walked south to see if we found it.  We ended up at the Sports Arena, one of them, and with that walk, we had homeless people yelling at us, which wasn't so fun.  We spotted a Jimmy Johns, and I totally knew was I was having for lunch.  We walked back, and found the underground tour.  The tour started at noon, and was a 90 min tour, which pushes us to have to book it to the airport right afterwards.  We had to wait an hour for the tour, so we explored the square, and looked at shops to kill time.  

When it came to the tour, it was really cool to learn about the history of how Seattle began.  Didn't know that Seattle was named after a Chief of a Native American Tribe living there in the pioneer days.  We got to go down in to a few of the underground places in Seattle, that was originally the city level, was was risen because of the tides.  There was a lot of history down there, and I highly recommend you guys take it.  The tour guides were awesome.  Would write more about it, but this blog is long enough lol.  

Once the tour was over, I really wanted to have Jimmy Johns, but we had to get to the car and headed for the airport.  When we got to the airport, we had lunch there.  Our flight left at 4.  We had a layover in Sacramento.  On the flight down to Sac, we had lovely views of Mt. Rainer, Mt. St. Helens, Crater Lake, and Mt. Shasta.  Landed in Sacramento.  The flight from Sacramento was normal.  Saw Yosemite on the way down.   Landed, and had In N Out for dinner.  Got home about 9:30.  It was good to be back, but I missed San Juan Island.  The weather up there was in the 70's the entire time.  We came home to a 110 degree brown sky weather.  Wasn't too happy to see that.  

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