San Juan Island 2015

Every year, my family, some friends, and I make a pilgrimage to San Juan Island to camp and wait for the local Orca whale pods to swim by.
This year, the whales spoiled us. Usually, they are far out in the ocean and you can only see them with binoculars or a really good camera. This year, they came so close! And not just once... nearly every time we saw them they were super close!

Porpoising like a dolphin

Hello! This spyhoping Orca is named Spock!

We also saw two beautiful sunsets.

My mom and I got up at 4:30 in the morning to go to the bathroom and the moon was beautiful, shining on the water! You can see the lights of Vancouver Island faintly, too.

I hiked up Young Hill twice (from two different directions).

The view from the top.

We went to Lime Kiln lighthouse several times. It is the prime spot on the island to watch the whales. In the summer, researchers carefully track the whales, so you can get a lot of information at the lighthouse, too.

My friends and I played lots and lots of games and did many Mad Libs.
I also got stung by a bee for the first time in my life. I lasted nineteen years. And then, a wasp got stuck in my shirt, and stung me three times.
After ten days of sleeping on the ground, it is strange to be back in my bed again. I can't wait to go back again next year!

Live long and prosper.

So long, farewell, some lo-ong German wo-ord...

Well, folks, it's that time of year again! It's the time when myself and some others take our yearly pilgrimage to the island of San Juan to whale watch, play Mad Libs, eat smores, and generally have a few larks. I have a whole bunch of posts scheduled, so look out for those! (Ironically, when I'm gone, I will be posting more than when I'm here! If that made any sense...)
Until then, I bid you farewell and all that.

Camping pictures!

Every year we go to San Juan Island with our friends to camp, whale watch, and relax. So here are the pictures!

The camp (complete with one white dog):

 

"Blue tarp camper, you're one of us."

We celebrated my birthday while we were one the island. My request was lunch at The Hungry Clam (great restaurant. If you ever happen to go there.... get a milkshake. They're HUGE!) and then the bookstore. The island has two wonderful bookstores and they also had a library book sale while we were there. So I came home with lots of lovely books.

 

 

I'm the one in the Doctor Who t-shirt. And that's just a corner of the bookstore. The rest of it is just as packed with books. They have over 45,000 titles. 0.0

 

The beautiful sunset:

 

 

 

 

 

The critters!

A butcher on the island takes all of his leftovers and spreads them out of a flat stretch of ground; foxes, bald eagles, and ever a black cat come and take the scraps of meat. It's very cool to watch, although it isn't good that the animals are becoming reliant on humans for their food.

 

 

Black kitty going for a drumstick. Ravenpaw?

 

 

 

 

A gray fox. This is was sooooo cool because foxes are one of my favorite animals.

 

 

No bald eagles were coming so we went back to the car and got in. Just then, FIVE (all in the above picture) eagles came swooping down and started dive bombing the piles of meat. It was really cool.

 

 

 

 

"Why yes, I am rather fabulous, aren't I?"



  

"Mine, mine, mine!"

 

 

There are three Orca whale pods in the Pacific northwest: J, K, and L pods. This has been a very bad year for whale watchers because the whales haven't been coming by lately. We were lucky enough to see them two days.

 

 

Breach! The whales must have been happy because we saw at least five breaches! The whale above did three in a row! It was really amazing to watch!

 

And one last picture:

 

 

 

Ghost mountains in the background. The land to the left looks like Jurassic Park!

 

Live long and prosper.













I have come baaaaaackk to liiiiiffee.

Some of you may have been wondering why I haven't been commenting this past week... It's because I have been camping! I scheduled four posts, which I was glad to see published! I was a little skeptical.
Anyway, camping was very fun. Sometime in the next week I'll post pictures... We saw wild Orca whales and bald eagles and even a gray fox!
For now, though, I thought I'd just say that I was back and that I finished two books while away!
One was And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. If you were to read an Agatha Christie... THIS IS THE ONE!!! Oh my goodness gracious she is an absolute genius. She had me so wrapped up that I had no clue about anything.... The cool thing about this one is that there are no detectives or police officers until the epilogue. This is such an amazing book. Wow. It was surprisingly creepy, which I was not expecting. I really felt the character's stress and fear. There was one point where I was reading in the car (out of the wind) and I was at a very tense part and my mom opened the trunk to get something. I jumped and was certain that I was going to be murdered.
The second book I finished was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland which I also LOVED. It was my type of book: very creative and colorful.
Now that I'm back at home, life has started to crash back down on me and I feel stress coming on.... So I'll go to bed soon and get to work tomorrow.
Live long and prosper!
(The title comes from the second Night at the Museum)

I'm going to camp!

Okay... I'm not going to REAL camp. But I am going to Camp NaNoWriMo!
Camp NaNoWriMo is basically NaNoWriMo.... Except in April (and July. Although the months change each year, I believe).
You can write whatever you want during Camp be it novel, epic poem, screenplay, script, play, novelette, short story... Whatever. You can also choose your own word count.
In 7 days, 3 hours, 34 minutes, and 17 seconds, Camp will start.
I will be writing the second installment in my spy series starring Daniel and Varina. Actually, it's the third installment... The second installment will be written during the July Camp. Why am I writing the third book second? I don't know. It just kind of happened that way.
So, if you don't hear much from me in April..... I have probably been eaten by a plot bunny (or worse, a plot BEAR!) or stung by some mind-dulling-character-destroying poison ivy.
Fare ye well fair blog followers.... I hope I make it out alive.
Live long and prosper.

Of Camping and Orcas

For the past 4 years (this being our fourth year), my family and my two friend's families have been going camping together to see Orca Whales. Every year we have been able to see magnificent whales.
This year we went a week later than we usually do and weren't positive if we'd see the whales... When we reached our camping spot the whale watchers told us that the whales were out to sea (sea sea to see what they could see see see but all that they could see see see was the bottom of the deep blue sea sea sea!). Oh no! Now what? Hang around, play Warrior Cats on the rocks, eat, run around, be free, skin a knee or two, watch the sun set, eat Smores, sit around the campfire, marvel at the moon, play LOTS of Mad Libs ("Remember, it's not polite to eat with your rolls of fat"), take the dogs for a walk, check on the dead seal.... Then the Orcas came back! Hurrah! Only about half a pod (there are three pods in this area). But half a pod is better than no whales at all!

Watching and waiting for the whales:

There they are!

An amazing creation.

We even saw a Bald Eagle!

And a dead seal....

"Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine!"

Let sleeping dogs lie:

I watched the sun set. Actually set. My first time. It was beautiful.
"Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning."

We had a great time! Lots of laughs and altogether fun. Tintin even came along.

On the trip over, I drew Paul McCartney (to finish up my drawings of the Beatles which have previously been featured on this blog - although I am going to have to re-do Ringo....). This drawing of Paul has now surpassed The Mouth of Sauron as "best drawing by Abbey."

Have a great week!