Tag: San Juan Islands

June 25, 2025 – Who Doesn’t Like Orcas?

June 25, 2025 /

I have recently been taking a required leadership course. As these things do, a seemingly random collection of individuals are put into a small group. With these situations, it is common to have an icebreaker question that everybody would answer. In my last session, the question was ‘if you were a tour guide for visitors, what would you show them about your home territory’?

That is easy, I am already doing that. I would take them to the beach. They live 5 miles from the Mediterranean. The Oregon coast is nothing like that. While you are at the beach, besides getting wind whipped flying kites, beach combing or chartering a fishing boat, whale watching is a low barrier of entry for guests.

That was the Seattle area. We have our own whale watching culture in Oregon. We did also have a trip booked to see gray whales. If you have never seen whales or been to the ocean, I highly recommend doing it. I suppose it is our version of a safari.

I have done it a number of times. Don’t get me wrong, I was looking forward to the trip. But, I happen to know that it is not quite the serendipitous discovery to see whales. Operators report in to each other and keep track of what is out there. They pretty much know where they are before they leave the dock. I suppose that I would hate to go on a four hour boat ride and not see anything. But, it does make me feel like the boat operators kind of phone in the trip.

In today’s day and age, many of these trips are prepaid or purchased online. It is customary for a fishing guide or whale boat captain to ask for tips at the end. If you bought the trip online, many of them have a tip line included which is what we typically do. But that also leads to the malaise of the trip. I definitely do not mind tipping, but on this trip I heard the hand speak two times in the whole four hours. The point is, if you want to leave a tip, make sure to have cash on hand as you leave the boat.

If you are in Seattle, there are numerous outfits to do something like this. We of course chose to do things the hard way. We drove from south of Seattle to Anacortes. We took the ferry to Orcas Island where we met up with the tour. The whole point of that was to make sure we were providing an extensive tour of the Seattle area, including the ferry experience and the San Juan Islands. But it definitely took a toll. It was an eight hour round trip.

The last Orca trip we took was about six years ago. What I heard then was that the Orca population was in serious jeopardy following the decline in salmon population. I suppose that remains to be seen if salmon will be saved. On this trip, we were told that they were eating harbor seals. In the picture above, there was a harbor seal in the vicinity that probably didn’t make it. There was some serious circling of the five whales. I cannot confirm that they were successful, it just felt like the odds were on the whales.

It was a blue bird day in Seattle as you can see from the picture. Much of the year, this is an iffy proposition. Tours operate rain or shine. Pacific Northwesterners like to say that if you don’t do things in the rain, then you might not do them at all. I would highly recommend appropriate rain gear if you are going to go in those conditions. For all of our posturing, it is a miserable experience to be wet for hours in the rain. Likewise, it would be no fun to be in the cabin during the whole trip.

One other thing to watch for is sea sickness. If you get motion sickness in the car, you will more than likely get sea sickness. Unfortunately, my wife gets sick almost every time. It seems to disproportionately strike kids and females. She takes Dramamine with little success. If there is any silver lining, days of small craft warnings will keep the boats in the harbor. They are not going to go out in rough seas but almost anyone will get sick if it gets rough enough.

End Your Programming Routine: I highly recommend taking out of towners on a whale watching tour, especially if it is a beautiful day. We have taken exchange students from Spain, Taiwan and Japan. The sea life is different from Asia and the Mediterranean. Because the operators follow the whales all day everyday, it is almost a guarantee you will see something.

September 16, 2020 – Island living

September 16, 2020 /

As I mentioned yesterday, we took a trip to Washington. I think that my wife and family have visited five or six times in the last five years. We have been to Victoria BC, the San Juan Islands and Whidbey Island.

If it were up to my wife, she would like to live on the coast. For me, I would prefer not to. Our coast is gray, windy, wet and rugged. I am OK for a weekend, but that climate is really harsh on things (and people). The Puget Sound offers some of the benefits without the drawbacks.

Let’s face it, it is still coastal Washington. So, it will be gray and temperate. What seems to be missing are the winds and waves of our coast. For instance, I would not hesitate to put a kayak into the water whereas here I can hardly imagine a protected enough environment. I guess what I am saying is that the opportunity to get into the water has a lower barrier of entry. Less serious boats can take advantage of the access to the water.

What does island living look like? I would say things are more expensive and you need to be able to wait, take things slower and prepared to do without. Because everything is imported, ferries and boats are critical to a normal infrastructure. Some commutes are doable on a ferry like Whidbey Island to Everett is only 15 minutes, but it takes thirty. Maybe Coupeville to Port Townsend is thirty five minutes. Many of the other ferries are quite a bit longer in total duration, so not really realistic for typical commuting.

I am speculating here, but I imagine town living is kind of like village living. These are small and tight knit communities of locals that are used to lots of out of towners but I imagine that breaking into the circle could be difficult. They are of course reliant on tourism for income, but guarded in true acceptance. Everywhere I have visited over the years have well apportioned amenities, from a grocery standpoint but it comes at a cost like $5/gallon of milk.

Property can be awfully expensive as any coastal town. Many price tags I saw were over the million dollar range, including on the main land too. I haven’t looked too hard, but I imagine the farther you get from services like ferries and water access there are probably some more reasonable prices. That really isn’t too much different than desirable areas in our area.

One of our favorite things to do is get on the island and just drive around and imaging what life would be like if you lived there. We did the same thing on the Hawaiian islands as well. You can get some really incredible views and serenity without being on the beach. Looking for Orcas and other sea life, watching for boats including Navy ships and enjoying the dynamic weather changes are some of the other benefits of island life.

The politics of Washington and the surrounding area are very much in line with the rest of the west coast. There is civil unrest in the cities and a much more conservative outlook when you get out of the population zones. I will say that I have not seen as much political signage as I did on Whidbey Island. Unfortunately, I was driving so I didn’t take a good representative picture but suffice to say they were everywhere.

There are a few places that seem like a good compromise between what my wife and I would like. This area seems like it would be one of them. I could see a life taking advantage of the water. Who knows, maybe a job could be found in the future?