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Entry tags:
Whales, Hal and riverfox
Ack! Missed updating for the last three days - too much has been happening. So three segments today, which I'll put behind cuts to preserve everyone's sanity :-)
Today was whale watch day - and we lucked out! The weather in the morning was just perfect. Sunny, calm and lovely warm sunshine with just a little bit of a bite in the air. So we toddled off to the most perfect little harbour at Shilshole Bay, cupped in a crescent of forested hills and with beautifully clean water populated with enormous starfish. We got onto a boat that was comfortably full with about 20 passengers - ie, not large by any means *g* but not so amall that it felt too risky. The captain and his crew of one (an ecologist) were utterly charming.
First thing we saw was sea lions. Sea lions, fcol! And running free! Jings! Took me a while to get over that one *g*. The sail out to the feeding grounds was brilliant, lovely sunshine and not enough bouncing around to be uncomfortable, just enough to be exhilerating. And then we got really, really lucky, because we quickly found a pod of three greys peacefully feeding just where the continental shelf dropped off into really deep water. They were amazing! They would spout a couple of times and then dive deep, flukes up in the air, just like every wildlife programme you've ever seen on tv :-) And they weren't the slightest bit bothered by our presence, just went peacefully about their business, at times within about ten feet of the boat, and let us watch them. Such a shame that anyone would consider causing them harm for any reason, they're so beautiful and calm. We must have stayed watching them for about an hour and a half, totally entranced. And nobody noticed just how cold it was getting as the weather started to close in. Apparently there were three storm fronts coming in really close together and the weather was set to get bad. We turned and headed for home. Nothing to see in the way of wildlife, but I did see the longest train I've ever seen in my life - one engine pulling 99 cars (yep, I counted, poor sad bint that I am *g*).
We were picking up![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
riverfox for dinner, so we headed for Everett and home. Took us a bit longer than intended though, since we had a totally unexpected diversion round downtown Seattle thanks to a cranky interchange/overpass arrangement that was bound and determined to keep us heading south when we wanted to go north *g*. Feather has this really nifty gadget - a PDA with GPS that *talks* to you LOL, which she'd pre-programmed with the route back home. It's been nicknamed Hal on the strength of our little diversion, it was quietly freaking out in a very 2001-type way when we couldn't get turned back north again thanks to central barriers - "What are you doing, Feather? I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Feather," LOL - and finally took a fit of the sulks and refused to talk to us at all. Hal recovered her good temper (yes, she is a female Hal - short for Harriet presumably) when we finally reached a place where we could turn and head back and decided to socialise with us again.
We picked riverfox up at about 7 and headed out to Black Angus for a bite to eat. We did good, you'd have all been proud of us - sure, we talked smut, but not loud enough to get thrown out of the place LOL. It was *great* :-))) We did nothing much but laugh so when the meal was finished, we were all reluctant to call it a night, so we went back to the RV for coffee and more smut chat. Perfect end to a perfect day :-)
Today was whale watch day - and we lucked out! The weather in the morning was just perfect. Sunny, calm and lovely warm sunshine with just a little bit of a bite in the air. So we toddled off to the most perfect little harbour at Shilshole Bay, cupped in a crescent of forested hills and with beautifully clean water populated with enormous starfish. We got onto a boat that was comfortably full with about 20 passengers - ie, not large by any means *g* but not so amall that it felt too risky. The captain and his crew of one (an ecologist) were utterly charming.
First thing we saw was sea lions. Sea lions, fcol! And running free! Jings! Took me a while to get over that one *g*. The sail out to the feeding grounds was brilliant, lovely sunshine and not enough bouncing around to be uncomfortable, just enough to be exhilerating. And then we got really, really lucky, because we quickly found a pod of three greys peacefully feeding just where the continental shelf dropped off into really deep water. They were amazing! They would spout a couple of times and then dive deep, flukes up in the air, just like every wildlife programme you've ever seen on tv :-) And they weren't the slightest bit bothered by our presence, just went peacefully about their business, at times within about ten feet of the boat, and let us watch them. Such a shame that anyone would consider causing them harm for any reason, they're so beautiful and calm. We must have stayed watching them for about an hour and a half, totally entranced. And nobody noticed just how cold it was getting as the weather started to close in. Apparently there were three storm fronts coming in really close together and the weather was set to get bad. We turned and headed for home. Nothing to see in the way of wildlife, but I did see the longest train I've ever seen in my life - one engine pulling 99 cars (yep, I counted, poor sad bint that I am *g*).
We were picking up
riverfox for dinner, so we headed for Everett and home. Took us a bit longer than intended though, since we had a totally unexpected diversion round downtown Seattle thanks to a cranky interchange/overpass arrangement that was bound and determined to keep us heading south when we wanted to go north *g*. Feather has this really nifty gadget - a PDA with GPS that *talks* to you LOL, which she'd pre-programmed with the route back home. It's been nicknamed Hal on the strength of our little diversion, it was quietly freaking out in a very 2001-type way when we couldn't get turned back north again thanks to central barriers - "What are you doing, Feather? I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Feather," LOL - and finally took a fit of the sulks and refused to talk to us at all. Hal recovered her good temper (yes, she is a female Hal - short for Harriet presumably) when we finally reached a place where we could turn and head back and decided to socialise with us again.We picked riverfox up at about 7 and headed out to Black Angus for a bite to eat. We did good, you'd have all been proud of us - sure, we talked smut, but not loud enough to get thrown out of the place LOL. It was *great* :-))) We did nothing much but laugh so when the meal was finished, we were all reluctant to call it a night, so we went back to the RV for coffee and more smut chat. Perfect end to a perfect day :-)