Day 2: Whale Watching in Vancouver

What a great day! We all really wanted to go whale watching on this trip; it was top of the list of us. The first company we called wasn't going to go out because they didn't have enough reservations. I was pretty worried that we would all be disappointed.

We tried another company - Vancouver Whale Watch - and they were planning to take the boat out. The weather was supposed to be decent, so we went for it - and we are SO glad we did!

Goofy kids with silly scarecrow on the dock:

Our boat...

Ready to go! I was SO excited! (And so was everyone else!)

It took 2 hours to find the whales, but the scenery was so pretty that it didn't bother us at all.

How 'bout that house:

This is how Rudy spent much of those 2 hours:

Brady explored the boat. It was cold. And windy!

Lunch time.

Hey! We see one! (See the spout?!)

There it is! Humpbacks -probably a group of 5 or 6!

Moving on...and trying to keep warm.

About 10 minutes away we found the orcas:

A mixed group from J Pod and K Pod, both resident pods. Did you know that the resident orcas only eat salmon? The transient orcas eat pretty much whatever they can find - seals, sea lions, other whales. And, the transient pods all speak the same language while the resident pods each speak a "dialect" of another language. How cool!

See the baby?

SO excited - can you tell?

This is Onyx. We watched him chase down a salmon; he was coming pretty far out of the water and changing directions in his efforts.

Headed back:

Still some great views on the way back...

And more animals: stellar sea lions...

and harbor seals...

Check out how far we had to go to find the whales - all the way past Victoria:

I think the red arrow is our approximate location: