I'm a fan of killer whales, but don't really like the name. I think orca sounds better. There are two times in my life that I got to see a whole bunch of them, and both were very memorable. The first time was in 1998 on one of our many "cousins trips" that my sister and I drug our kids on. We were camping in the San Juan Islands and decided to stop at Lime Kiln State Park and see if we could see any whales. When we drove up we noticed a bunch of people on the rocks, all acting excited and pointing. We jumped out and got the kids out and soon we were watching the many whales swim by. The word on the street was it was the "superpod", or several pods of orcas swimming together. We watched from the rocks as all sizes swam by, including mothers and babies. We were as close as about ten feet to some of the them, and all of us were amazed. It was one of those amazing "right place at the right time" experiences.
The second time was 2008 when I was on a women's sailing class trip. We left Roche Harbor in our boat and headed out to Haro Strait when we started to see whales. We sailed some but mostly watched in awe as whales appeared to every side of us, including one swimming under our boat. We spent close to two hours just watching the whales, constantly scanning the horizon and never knowing where one would surface. We finally reluctantly sailed on but it was a day I'll always remember. I tried to get some pictures of the whales but they are fast and always appearing in a new place, so not many pictures turned out. Here's one, just so you'll know what I'm talking about. Thanks, killer whales, for coming by to say hi!
1 comment:
If it makes you feel any better about the name, more folks are using Orca, since they are technically a dolphin species, the largest one. In older references to these animals they were called 'killer of whales' because of their ability to hunt in pods and actually subdue full grown whales.
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