Yesterday I returned from a multi-day sea kayak trip with a family of three from Oregon. We paddled out of Friday Harbor and headed north to Jones Island state park. We were looking forward to relaxing, exploring and looking for wildlife for a few days. We saw a ton of jellies (formerly known as jellyfish), including lion's mane and water jellies. We even saw a few glimpses of a California sea lion! It happened just as we departed our slips in Friday Harbor, and was a good omen for our trip. Although thunderstorms were predicted, we only got rain and were able to stay pretty dry under our tarp and in our tents.
The second day we paddled over to Flattop Island, a National Wildlife Refuge, and check out the bald eagles, pigeon guillemots, harbor seals and gulls all resting and roosting there. The exposed rock formations gave us a great opportunity to consider the natural history of the island, and carefully look for nesting sea birds along the cliffs. As we paddled in the San Juan Channel we saw quite a few harbor porpoises. They were spread out along our route and surfacing 2, 3, 5 at a time. Watching them quietly forage was pretty neat! Later that night the clouds parted long enough for us to hike out to the west side of the island and catch a beautiful sunset.
My personal highlight of the trip was snatching a few minutes to hike along the perimeter of the island by myself. As I rounded the cliffs on the northwest side of Jones, I heard some splashing from the water below and looked down to see a female harbor seal with her pup. From my vantage point above them I could see far down into the water and was able to watch them swim and play gracefully underwater. It was SO neat to be able to spy on them for a few minutes unobtrusively.
On our third, and last, day we paddled over to the west side of Henry Island and ate lunch overlooking the Haro Strait. The kids were especially excited to get an up close look at a few harbor seals as they popped up by our boats. Their father was pretty awed by a bald eagle which had returned to the rocky shore to eat a fish. This eagle was just feet away! It was a nice conclusion to a lovely three days.