Whales

Going to Walden

Mary Oliver

It isn't very far as highways lie.

I might be back by nightfall, having seen

The rough pines, and the stones, and the clear water.

Friends argue that I might be wiser for it.

They do not hear that far-off Yankee whisper:

How dull we grow from hurrying here and there!

Many have gone, and think me half a fool

To miss the day away in the cool country.
Maybe. But in a book I read and cherish,

Going to Walden is not so easy a thing

As a green visit. It is the slow and difficult

Trick of living, and finding it where you are.

Neither Daryl or I have ever been on a whale tour here in the Pacific Northwest and a recent weekend with no plans found me looking for last minute sailings. Being on the water is so rejuvinating! Our whale watching tour left the Port of Bellingham and arrived in Friday Harbor about three hours later. We toured around on foot, then hopped back on the boat and headed out into Puget Sound and found a pod of Orca whales.

I spotted one!

So many boats in the water, looking for whales, as well as planes overhead. This photo does not show the approximately 20 boats that surrounded ours. Even with the heavily enforced distance restrictions, it seems kind of antagonizing for the whales... I don't think I would go again. We've seen whales, dolphins, and giant sea turtles in Hawaii, Galopagos, Gulf of Mexico, Central America, Carribean, Seychelles - and somehow it seems I appreciate them more if I leave them alone.

Sea lions hanging out, just waiting for us to sail by.

Coming into Bellingham

What a beautiful day!