A WHALE OF A DAY

Well it's that time of the year again--Herring

Season is right around the corner. The planes

are buzzing around the skies all day long on

the lookout for the huge schools of herring

and the wildlife has returned in abundance

to gorge on the millions of fish that will

be spawning here soon.

It was another warm, sunny day so we

delivered a cake before church, went to

church, enjoyed an all-you-can-eat shrimp

Mission's fundraiser after church,

delivered 2 more cakes and then

decided to head out on the water.

We left the dock and it wasn't 3 minutes out

that we had a HUGE Humpback cross right

directly in front of us! No picture--we were

all taken aback by it and slowed the boat

down to a standstill just to watch.

Soon after we saw the local tour boat go by

filled with people that were out whale

watching for the day.

We went a few minutes farther and stopped

the boat and what do you know...

Here comes another pair. These were so close you can

easily see the blow holes on the front.

We turned the boat off and were just watching when

this one decided to dive.

Pretty view with a few seagulls on the rocks. Right now

it seems like Alfred Hitchcok's "The Birds" movie

since there are hundreds of seagulls around town waiting

on the herring fishery. A lot of the larger roofs in town

(like the large hotel) are white from all of the bird

poo being deposited on it.

Somebody got a little too hyped up from all

the whale action and had to be locked in

a body vise-grip until he could calm

himself down. Sheesh.

We went a ways farther to get away from all the whales

and found a shallow channel to anchor up in and fish for

a few herring with a pole. These guys are great bait

for halibut and they love to bite the multiple tiny

hooks on a light fishing pole. My daughter went in

the kayak to paddle around a bit since the water

was so nice and flat.

Here there were 4 herring on the line--2 flew

off into the boat (dogs are inspecting them)

Lots of wildlife all around--eagles, sea lions, ducks...

Lilly just can't stop staring at the fish in the bucket.

Neo just can't stop staring at the fish in the water.

So here is my younger daughter happily paddling

while we all enjoy the silence...

and look what surfaced 50 feet away...

and brought their friends...

these are not zoomed--we were surrounded...

You can't believe the sound of the foooossssshhhhhhh

as they blow one by one in the silence. My daughter

said she could hear them pulling air in after they

blew too since she was down on the water.

It. Was. Amazing.

and Awesome.

and Breathtaking.

and Scary because my daughter

was in the kayak, in the water.

with

the

whales.

We had her hug the shore and we all

watched them, then she was able to get

back in the boat.

Eventually a rain squall came over and

they all went away, so we headed home.

What an amazing sight.

This was a cool shot of Mt. Edegecumbe as we were

going by. And we had another whale come alongside

us as we were headed home too, just kind of keeping

pace with us as we went along.

I thought this was a neat shot of some of the huge

boats that are here waiting for the Herring Fishery.

That should be happening here in the next couple

of days...