Day 56: Otters and Eagles and Whales, Oh My

Yesterday I went whale-watching.

I got to Granville Island around 9 to check in, signed a liability form, and was assigned a giant red suit for protection from the elements - mostly wind, but they're water-resistant as well, and quite warm. There was half an hour between checking in and leaving, so I wandered off to find a bathroom, Kleenex, et cetera. Then it was back to the office to suit up and put my phone and camera in plastic bags.

We walked down to the boat, clad in our giant red jumpsuits. Imagine twenty people in bright red snowsuits - that was us. I got a pretty good seat, we got a brief safety lecture, and off we went.

The boat went west and then north, weaving in and out of the Gulf Islands (and, incidentally, over the U.S. border). First we saw otters, sunning themselves on the rocks. Then more otters. Then we saw eagles - a bunch of bald eagles and a lone golden eagle. Some splashes up ahead indicated porpoises, but we couldn't get close enough to see them well.

Then there were whales.

We saw two pods of whales, both of which were resting. "Resting" means that they're sleeping, sort of, but still moving - you'll see them surface, then submerge again, then surface again a ways ahead, then submerge again. The first pod was deep enough in its rest that the whales came right in front of our boat - like, rocking-the-boat close, let-me-reach-out-and-touch-you close.

We went looking for the second pod because the first one was resting, though the second one turned out to be resting as well. Near the end, though, they started to wake up a bit, and one of them sort of... sat up to look at us (I got a good picture), and then another breached three times. It was pretty excellent.

We went home via open water rather than through the islands again. Most people dozed, but I stood by the rail and watched the ocean go by. It's so cool - sometimes it was a deep, deep blue, and sometimes it looked like sunlit jade, and sometimes it was the colour of slate. The view didn't change much, but the ocean never stopped changing.

I went home long enough to grab a bite to eat before going out to Kits to watch the second night of fireworks. It was the U.S.'s turn, and they were really pretty fabulous. At one point there were hearts in the sky; later it was spirals; after that it was stars.

There's also some other stuff that I don't think should go in here just now. Away I go to do laundry -