San Juan-ing

Well, I'm really sorry I haven't posted for so long. I was on vacation and before that I just forgot. This post if for Mariah, and my other animal-happy friends.

I was on vacation last week in the San Juan Islands. It was so much fun. The islands aren't very populated so there is still a lot of natural wildlife around. (If you don't know, the San Juans are up in the Puget Sound.) I saw a number of different animals.

The most exciting thing we saw was bald eagles. We saw them a number of different times, both flying and landing in trees. They are really very majestic and beautiful creatures. One morning an eagle sat for about an hour and a half on this one tree. Just sitting there and looking around. He finally went off and caught a fish. It was so exciting.

We also saw bunny rabbits. I know this isn't really that exciting, but they are everywhere on the islands. Very cute and fluffy. They are considered pests.

We saw seals everywhere. When you ferry and when you kayak you see them come up and look at you. They are harbor seals and not very cute, but still wild and exciting to see.

We had a number of chances to go tide pooling so we saw lots of those sorts of creatures. I got a number of wonderful pictures of huge purple sea stars.

On the day we left my mom and I went for an early morning kayak trip. I was hoping to saw my otters one last time, but apparently they had already left for the morning. But on the way back we did see some jelly fish. They were box jelly fish. (Yes, these are the kind that sting you, but we were careful). They were all over the bay just floating. It was really cool to see them in the wild. I have seen lots of jelly fish in aquariums, but you really can't compare that to seeing them in there natural habitat.

This really doesn't count as an animal, but we also saw a red tide (an over growth of algae) when we were sailing. I was surprised at how red it can actually get. It looked like God had washed a very large red paint brush off in the ocean.

My favorite animal we saw was the river otters. Yes, these river otters live in the ocean. Please don't let them know that they aren't really sea otters. There was a den of them right by the place we stayed on Lopez Island (aka Slowpez). One night we were outside and we saw one otter run right across the road and into the driveway of the house we were staying at. We were within about 20 feet and we got a really good look at him. He was so cute and looked just like I imagined an otter would look like in the wild. He was obviously very curious about what was around him and was taking his time checking everything out. So that meant we got to see him very well. After that he went back into the water of the bay. Maddy and I went down and got in the kayaks and were able to get a very good look at him in the water. He was diving down to get food and then he would come back up and lie on his back and eat it. We would paddle closer why he was under water and then stop paddling when he was eating. In this fashion we were able to get within 10 feet of him, before the otter noticed us and swam off.

Cheers!

Your Literary Junkophile.

Amendment 1: Did you know that the San Juan islands and surrounding area are the marshmallow capital of the country.

Amendment 2: I had a wonderful time on vacation, my family is already planning to go back next year.

Amendment 3: Don't be surprised if I one day live on the Islands.

Amendment 4: I love sailing.

Amendment 5: I want a sailboat.