Whales... and Penelope

Last weeks article about our trip to Vancouver Island took up too much space so we had to split the article in half to make it fit. I am glad it happened because it allowed me a chance to declare that grandparenthood has now happened. Our son and his wife had a baby girl on Saturday, August 22nd. The birth went smoothly as far as any complications. They had a long 17 hour process so they were bushed by the middle of that day. Her family and our family helped to make sure they were settled in. My version of helping is making sure that Max had a good cup of coffee and that both of them had a good breakfast after all that work. Mimi and I headed out to their house in Crystal Springs to feed the chickens, check the cats and let the dogs out. We picked up a few things they would need for one more night in the hospital. We delivered those things to them and got out of there so they could get some rest. The next day they packed up with their new baby and moved back home. On the way out of the hospital they named the bay Penelope Burns Martinson. We have another Martinson larva on the map, she will enjoy the country life and learn about plants and being in nature since her parents are plant people. We couldn’t be more excited.

Now back to last weeks story. The next morning we woke up to some more great coffee and I had read about a little shop down the road that had some pastries and some more good coffee. That place happened to be on the way towards the beach that we would comb that day. It was a shorter hike to this beach but it was a longer walk on the beach. There’s a lot of driftwood that winds up on these beaches and there are people who build little shelters from the driftwood. There were some surfers up and down the beach so I guess I could call them surfer shacks. They were really just a place to put your stuff and maybe take a nap if the chance arrived. I took some cool pictures of the surfer shacks and I will have some of those pictures on our website this week. The one that I have a picture of is where I decided to experience a nap inside one.

Mimi was glued to her binoculars looking for whales and didn’t realize I had gone into one and dozed off. When I came to she was sitting outside the shack and we sat there for a little while together when I noticed some whales way out in the sound. I could see them blowing water up into the air. I pointed where I was seeing that and she confirmed with her binoculars that there were three or four whales swimming around out there. We hung around until we couldn’t see them anymore and it was time again to head towards our little bungalow on the cliff. We weren’t in the mood to eat out that night so we cooked a little something and hung out on the porches again and just relaxed. The next morning we drove a little further to a beach that we heard about that had a waterfall that was hidden in the cliffs. We learned about it from a YouTube video that we watched before we left to go on this trip. The person described where the trail that led into the forest was that would lead us to this hidden waterfall. We found a little trail with no trouble and hiked in to see an absolutely beautiful waterfall that was inside a cave.

We played around the waterfall for a while and took some pictures, we weren’t swimming as it was way too cold, but it was one beautiful site. Everything around the waterfall was covered in moss, and there were streaks of light that were coming through the hole that allowed the water to come through. The sound was thunderous and the air was full of mist, it’s a site will never forget. We went to a second beach that day and saw some more whales from the coastline. This spot was really windy and we both had a down jacket on while we watched four Orcas Making their way down the whale highway. That night we had reservations at a beautiful restaurant sitting on the coast that one of our customers and good friends told us about. It was everything the hype built it up to be, beautiful food, and friendly servers. Of course the seafood was all you would think it was. From our table at the window we watched quite a few different kinds of birds but most excitingly there was a bald eagle that just hung around during our entire meal, it was a romantic afternoon for us with candles and desert.

After seeing the whales from a distance we knew we wanted to see some up close so that night we booked a trip on a whale watching tour all the way back in Victoria which was about a 3 Hour drive from where we were. We didn’t mind the drive because we didn’t have anything better to do and the thought of seeing whales up close was enough for us to happily make that drive. There are several kinds of whale tours that can be taken, some on speedy rubber rafts where you are belted in so you don’t fly out. The one we chose was a double-decker boat that you can get up and walk around and not be out in the sea with orcas in a boat that’s trying to thrill the people on it. That’s not our kind of thrill. As we left Victoria Harbour, we saw lots of sea lions and bald eagles perched on the cliffs as we approached the famous lighthouse. We could see sea planes coming and going and a few other whale tour boats.

We heard the radio call from another boat that there was a group of Wales in an area where we were headed and we could feel the boat pick up a little speed and head that way. It didn’t take long before we were seeing the water spouts from the whales as they blew the water out of their blow holes. I had to learn to be quick with my camera as sometimes a flipper would show up or just a tale as they did a flip. My camera had to be up and ready at all times to catch them because sometimes the showings were really fast. About two hours into the tour we came across a whale that the guide on our boat knew as Hemlock. They name the whales in this area as they do try to track them to keep up with their movement. Hemlock decided to give us a show of a lifetime. This humpback whale fully breached out of the water at least 10 times. I got some great pictures of her entire body flying through the air. It was a sight to see that we will never forget. It seemed like that whale was showing off for us because in between breaching she would get on her back and swim upside down with her two fins up in the air.

The guy said it was pretty rare to see one breach for as long as this one did. We were very excited with the pictures that we got of this show that Hemlock put on for us. The next day was our last day in the area, we would have to start making our way back to Seattle to catch our flight back home. We visited one more beach and hung out for a good long time. We had reservations at another really cool restaurant on the cliffs that night and celebrated a wonderful trip. We met the dude who rented the house to us and he suggested that if we liked what we were seeing here we should try going a little farther north next time to a surfer community that hardly anybody goes to. We looked it up that afternoon and definitely see a future trip, that area was absolutely gorgeous. I’ve never seen anything quite like it and can’t wait to get back. I think the next time we go, we will land in the city of Vancouver and then crossover to Vancouver Island, which would put us about three hours north of where we were at this time. I’m ready to go tomorrow, but I guess I’d better stick around and help plant some pansies so we can afford to go next year.

The next day was a long drive from where we were all the way to Seattle. I believe it took us about six hours of driving and it was kind of late when we got in for a quick Asian meal and a stop at a hotel really close to the Seattle airport. I never sleep good on the night before an airport day because I have to get the rental car returned and get through all the shenanigans in the airport. I knew that Seattle was one of those airports where you really do want to be three hours early in case the bad case happens. We use sky miles when we travel so we knew that if we got through security and all that stuff early we could hang out in the sky room and get juiced up for the trip home. Our flight home went well. I wrote one article and watched a whole season of Curb Your Enthusiasm on our way to Atlanta where we had another long wait to get home about midnight the next day. This would go in the books as one of our favorite trips for a lot of reasons.

Mainly the slow pace, the gardens, the two bucket list check offs and just being together without work and home being all up in our faces. We had one more day off planned once we got home to make sure the yard was in good shape and to get ready for the heat. We were excited to get back and see everybody at work but not in that big of a hurry. Brayden is the guy who always takes care of our yard when we go out of town and he had done a perfect job, all the plants were well watered and cared for as usual. I will always be grateful to Brayden for the care that he puts into our yard. As I have said before Mimi and I are in between pets so we don’t have that worry, but we do have to make sure our yard endures our absence and he has made that a no worry for us. I’m hoping you’re staying safe in this heat and working early in the mornings as much as possible. Every day we’re getting a little closer to some survivable temperatures.