JEEBUS FRIES!

I went out on the boat yesterday. I took so many pictures I don't know which ones to post!

Well, we did see orcas, and I've been wanting to see them all year, so to start, I'll give you this little video.


These guys were members of the resident AE pod, which actually has about 20 animals. They're the ones we see most often out there. Usually they're pretty friendly and will come up to the boat and swim underneath, but they were being pretty elusive yesterday. The one with the tall, straight dorsal fin is one of the biggest males in the pod. The others with him were all females or young ones.



( We also saw a bear... )

And here are a few of the mountains and scenery around town. It's been rainy and foggy for the past 2 weeks straight, but a few days ago it started clearing up in bits and pieces. ( Bits and pieces... )

So.

Today, Stan and Mary Helen's eldest daughter was on board with her family. Her youngest (3 and a half) adores me because I spent the Christmas party last year tickling him. He calls me "that tickle-mommy." He followed me around the boat all day, flirting and batting his eyelashes and asking me to tickle him. Ha. I learned my lesson at Christmas. If I'd tickled him today, he would have gotten so wound up he'd have bounced right off the boat.

In addition to the tickledemon, our day was quite eventful. Otters, sea lions, and eagles of course, plus that lost young gray whale that's been hanging around Bullhead, plus a humpback with a baby, plus some Dall's porpoise.

Oh, and did I mention that we saw an orca kill and eat a porpoise today?

Well, we did.

We were about 10 minutes away from getting back into the harbor, and we saw some porpoise. Stan slowed down to see if they would follow us, but they were speeding in the other direction, so he started going again. Then an orca came up among them, so I ran upstairs to tell him. He'd already started turning the boat.

At first, I thought they were just playing, but I was watching through the binocs and I saw the orca come up a few times and rush the porpoise, and then finally the porpoise was left floating, belly-up, on the surface, with its fins in the air, and I saw red in the water. Then the orca came toward it and when it went down again, the porpoise was gone.

Mary Helen insisted it was a couple orcas with some orca babies, but I know what I saw. And I had to keep reassuring the tickledemon's older brother that the orca was just playing with the porpoise, while surrepticiously nodding my head at the lady who kept asking if the orca just ate the porpoise.

So, yeah. Eventful.