You could not ask for more out of the San Juan Islands than what we got today. Sun, sea and sightings all wrapped up in one stunningly beautiful package. The sea was a bit of a surprise today since we endured some bouncing around as we traveled up and around the north and west sides of San Juan Island. But the orcas were racing along and made for excellent photo specimens, plus the spray in our faces just reminded us of how lucky we were to be out on the water. When it was time to start back the...

Travel and  Leisure Names San Juan Islands  #4 for Top Islands of Continental U.S. and Canada Friday Harbor, Wash. – Travel + Leisure Magazine has just announced its 2010 World’s Best Awards, ranking the San Juan Islands #4 on its list of Top Islands in the Continental U.S. and Canada. The rankings (in order) are: Mount Desert Island, Maine; Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia; Vancouver Island, British Columbia; San Juan Islands, Washington and Prince Edward Island, Canada. The magazine...

There is certainly a lot of excitement on the water today, from a variety of boats and yachts to BBQs on the shore, but most importantly..the orcas whales!  We headed to the west side of San Juan Island today to oo and awe in the presence of our resident J-pod orcas.  We spotted the orcas off every direction of the boat.  Not to mention that two bald eagles were flying above us.  The orcas were spread out from each other, occasionally joining with a family member to travel in a small...

Our San Juan Safari photo contest may have a few new impressive entries because this evening's sunset tour was truly "picture perfect".

The sun was low in the sky, illuminating the clouds and creating a soft glow upon the water.

Two majestic bald eagles, with 7 foot wingspans, soared above us as we headed north towards S. Pender Island.
Our crew was thrilled that we were able to cross into Canadian waters.  We said goodbye to the U.S. and hello to the orca whales!  We spotted at...

In the San Juan Islands, we are blessed with an abundance of wildlife. We are one of 7 places on Earth with a high population of orcas. Almost every single day for the past two weeks we have seen them off the west side of our very own island, San Juan. The west side of the island is where the land based whale watching park is located. Like a stationary sentinel, it watches the orcas foraging off the cliffs below.  We are one of the few places in the world where you can see 'black and...

Softly we sat and watched the whales about 700 yards away from us. At first we could only see white wake, their bodies like boats zooming through the water. As we waited, their dorsal fins began to loom in the distance. We followed them as they swam parallel to us west along the south side of Stuart Island, reuniting with their pod at Turn Point Light House.  It was a slow but satiating afternoon as we watched the orcas loll about the land, hugging the shore. Bright, sunny, peaceful...

Ok, not really, but wouldn't that be cool.  We did spend time with the orcas though and had a lovely afternoon on the west side of San Juan Island.  There was Ruffles, our big old male, some of his other J pod mates and lots of swimming going on.  Not every encounter with the orcas is a circus of breaches and spyhops, but any day that we spend with them is a good one and good days is what we are all about.

Even days without orcas are good days, because there is always something...

Marine Biologist John Calambokidis showed a series of slides and some video and one listed what they found including "50 gallons of undigested contents, mostly algae but 3.2 lbs were "human debris, including plastic bag material, fabrics (including a leg of sweatpants), fishing line, golf ball, duct tape and a juice pouch.

15 oz of the total debris were plastic bag pieces alone." He said this indicated that the whale had clearly been feeding in the waters in and near Puget...

All of Dawn's photos from the Whale Watching & Wildlife Tour June 10, 2010 have been entered into our photo contest.

It was an awesome day in the San Juan Islands today and we had a superb trip.  The orcas disappeared into the oceanic netherworld some time in the night, so we went off in search of bigger and better intrigues.  After motoring down San Juan Channel, around Goose and Long Islands and Whale Rocks, Capt. Mike took Casey, the guests and me on a whirlwind tour around San Juan Island.  We saw porpoises, eagles and sea birds.  There were beautiful islands, homes and waterways for us to...