Contributed By Laura Lee Winger
I clicked the shutter button, but the shot took too late. The baby orca had completed its flip and disappeared back into the deep blue waters before my camera could capture the moment. While we had been observing a family of about twenty-five killer whales for over an hour, the baby only did flips two or three times, and they were so infrequent it was difficult to stay focused on capturing the perfect image. Nevertheless, our wildlife tour from the San Juan Islands, near Seattle, Washington, had already been a breath-taking experience, and there was still more to come. The crew of the Western Prince was very knowledgeable, and had located the J-pod that morning via radio collaboration, and brought us directly to the spot of the sighting.
I chose to vacation in Seattle in early May, based primarily on the schedule of expected whale and wildlife sightings for that month. Orcas were my primary interest, but May also holds high expectations of sighting porpoises, bald eagles, seals and sea birds, and a medium expectancy of seeing sea lions, making it the best combination of expected animal sightings for my preferences. Indeed, our tour witnessed bald eagles, sea birds, seals and sea lions.
Before our wildlife tour, we ventured around Friday Harbor at the San Juan Islands after arriving that morning by ferry, and ate at a cute little local restaurant. There are many artists on the islands, so the shops and art festivals there have thousands of fun and unique goods to offer. After the tour, we shopped in the Whale Museum and gift store, and did some more shopping before taking the ferry back to the mainland.
In addition to our daytrip to the San Juan Islands, we experienced many of the artifacts and treasures of the beautiful city of Seattle.
We visited the Seattle Aquarium, although we felt the children's activities were more impressive than the actual animals and exhibits there. We found Pine Street to be a great shopping experience. We found the "Soul of Seattle" at Pike's Place Market, near the waterfront, with a history as full and lively as the city itself.
The Underground Tour gives a witty, historical perspective to Seattle tourists as you are literally taken beneath the city and enter a world of "graft, opium, sex, debauchery and Red Light district shenanigans," as described on the website. We were surprised to find out that we took the Underground Tour on the very anniversary of Seattle's Great Fire, which was a primary driving force in the history of the city.
Along the same lines of coincidence, we savored world-famous Top Pot Donuts on National Donut Day. We went back two more times during our stay, because the donuts were really that good!
After the Underground Tour, we were drawn by the amusing Cow Chip Cookies store and agreed that those huge, doughy chocolate chip cookies were some of the best we've ever had. The store has all sorts of hilarious paraphernalia to go with the comical name.
The Space Needle, of course, was an icon we couldn't ignore, and we enjoyed a wonderful meal in the rotating restaurant, SkyCity, at the top. Save some room for the Lunar Orbiter dessert if you dine there, it is an essential tradition that will take you by surprise!
A short drive out of the city brought us to Snoqualmie Falls a beautiful landscape for artists, photographers and nature lovers, but we didn't find much hiking or interesting activities. We also sought out and eventually located the Microsoft Visitor Center and played around in there for an hour or so. We missed out on the opportunity to take a tour of Boeing, but that is another area of interest that might appeal to you.
As with most large cities, this metropolis has just about something for everyone. A little research goes a long way, and if you plan your trip right, you can hit all sorts of points of interests that are important to you.
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