Greetings from an Internet Cafe in the San Juan Islands

We are spending an afternoon in the tiny town of Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands, and I have just a few photos to share from the last couple of days on the National Geographic Sea Bird. We are touring the islands and looking for wildlife and other fun things. Here in Friday Harbor we visited a whale museum and whale research station. Amazingly much is known about many individual orcas, such as one known as Granny who lived over 100 years!

Orcas are one of the big reasons for an expedition to these waters. Alas, the species is currently very fragile, and
where once they were numerous, now they are sometimes just not seen. Luckily, we saw them yesterday morning.
Quite a few whale watching day boats were in the area -- one is behind the orca.

Though there are clouds, the trees and moss in along the water are beautiful and green.
This was on Sucia Island where we landed for a walk along the beach and into the forest.
Kayaking was also on offer, but we are waiting for better weather -- maybe a mistake!

The bark of the Madrone Trees peels off leaving a spectacular red under-layer and also greenish areas on the trunk.

Overnight the Sea Bird was anchored in an area where several commercial fishing boats were working.

This may be my last post for a while, as we soon enter Canadian territory and I probably won't have any more access. But there are always surprises!