As of this post, we’re back. Back home, back on land. But not back to “reality” yet.

I feel like I learned a lot on this trip. About myself, about life, and about family. I’ll save that for another post.

But for now, let’s get up to speed on the last part of our trip.

I stopped taking as many pictures and videos (with the exception of the prolonged whale encounter we came across). So I’ll just be brief, and post the stuff I have with not a ton of context. Because, for the most part, what happened at the end of the trip, stays at the end of the trip… or something.

So here’s a map of our last official stop (not counting Seattle where we ended), Port Townsend.

When we last left off we were eating “Shrimp on the Barbie”.

After that we went to bed, and woke up.

In the morning we hung out, and decided to go check out “Seal Rock” in Rocky Bay on San Juan Island.

All the seals were gone when we got there, but I decided to check out the rock anyhow, cause I normally don’t go close to it. Once we were super close to the rock, I noticed a baby seal almost camouflaged on the rock.

I was trying not to disturb it, but once Jackson noticed, he started (understandably) yelling, “Baby seal! Seal, seal, seal!” That startled the little seal and it rolled off the rock into the water.

I felt a little bad, and at the same time, it was a fun experience, and it seems imprinted on Jackson’s memory days later, as evidenced by his “Baby, seal!” outbursts.

Afterwards, I hung out to see if we could spot the baby seal and make sure it was OK. I’m happy to report, we saw it with another seal shortly afterwards (probably its mom). So, happy endings all around.

Jackson has been periodically yelling, “Baby, seal!” Ever since.

Then we hung out on the rocky beach and looked for crabs.

The next day we left to go to Port Townsend.

We went around the top of San Juan Island and through Mosquito Pass to the west side of the island for two reasons.

1.) To avoid Cattle Pass (which can have very strong tides.)

2.) To try and see some orcas (which tend to hang out on the west side of the island.)

And we totally saw lots of orcas.

Specifically, 3 of them, which kept following our path. Or we were following ours. I don’t know.

But every time we thought they were gone, they came back again. That made our trip significantly longer because we had to cut power when we saw them and give them some distance. Because it’s not good to have your propeller going near them. And you’re supposed to try and stay 200 yards away from them.

However, if they’re intentionally getting close to *you* then there’s not much you can do to avoid that.

Jackson was not too much of a fan of whales after watching Pinocchio.

So we watched them for awhile, but then Jackson and Lindsey went down below into the cabin.

While they were down there the whales kept getting super close to the boat. It was hard to get it on video, but I got a few of them.

One of them suddenly breached right in front of the boat. I didn’t get it on video but Lindsey said she heard the splash from inside the boat.

However, I did get one breaching on video (badly framed) from further away.

And I did get a couple right off the bow of the boat.

And one following along side us.

Then we went across the Straight of Juan De Fuca.

It was super rolly polly up, down, left, right. For hours.

We all got a little sea sick.

When we finally arrived in Port Townsend we docked and went out to eat at an awesome fish and chips joint.

And hung out around town.

What happens in Port Townsend pretty much stays in Port Townsend (cause I didn’t document much) but here’s a sample.

And now, we’re back. Home.

On land.

I’m a little excited to sleep in a softer bed. But at this point, that’s about all I’m excited about. It’s going to take a bit of time to get used to life back on land again.

Until next time.