whale sea kayaking

last weekend mike and i were lucky enough to go sea kayaking in the san juan islands. we had a lot of fun. first off, bailey and parker came over and spent 2 nights with our kids so that we could go on this early anniversary date. we started driving up to anacortes and went shopping at rei, went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, the cheesecake factory, and then saw the dark knight. SOOOOO good! it was a great date night and a great start to our weekend getaway.
the next morning we caught the ferry over to Friday Harbor and met up with our kayaking guide and the rest of our group. we set up our campsite and then got in our kayaks to look for orcas. we were lucky enough to see some! we're sitting there paddling and all of a sudden a large black fin emerges in the distance--we were like "FIN, FIN!!!" the bummer was that when you're in a group like that you have to all raft together if there is a whale sighting. mike and i were farther out and closer to the orcas but our guide was yelling at us to turn around and get with the group. i think there were about 3 or 4--we weren't super close, but close enough. we also saw tons of bald eagles, seals, some other birds that i don't know the names of and load of kelp! we went back to camp, made a salmon fettucine and strawberry shortcake and then watched the sunset with other members of our group. most of the others we were with were twice my age, but we didn't even notice. we were all just joking around and we made some neat friends.
the next day we set out again and didn't see any more killer whales. we had finished our tour and were loading the kayaks back onto the trailer when our guide got some info from the park ranger that the orcas were coming our way. so we raced out to the bluff and sure enough out in the distance were the whales. one even breached and flipped in the water\--if we had only stayed out a little bit longer we would have been right in the middle of them. they were seriously swimming where we had been only 20 minutes prior.
so we saw them both days and had a great trip.
bailey and parker kept our kiddos entertained and even had the house nice and clean for our return home. thanks b and pj!
now sydney says i "killed a whale" (killa whale)...