W is for...

Whales!

Whales in Juneau. More whales than we could shake a stick at. Or take pictures of.

We had been told that we would see many whales in the Inside Passage, and we did. Almost all the whales we saw were humpbacks. The small whale watching boat/tour we took was surrounded a couple times by whales. I was getting dizzy trying to photograph all of them.

It seemed that anytime we would spend a while on deck, we were almost certain to see whales somewhere in the water. A little patience was all that was ever needed. Early one morning as I walked on deck, almost the only person up at that hour, I watched several young whales breaching in the dawn sunlight, followed by two groups (pods?) of Dall's porpoise. It was awesome.

One evening, as the sun was hanging just above the horizon, we saw three Orcas leaping as we sat in the Starquest lounge at the top of the ship. Everyone in the lounge clustered at the windows to watch these huge whales playing in the light of the evening sun. I thought briefly about running downstairs to get the camera, but I didn't want to miss a single moment of the show. There comes a time to set down the camera and just enjoy the moment without trying to set up the perfect shot. And when I think about the whales of the Inside Passage, it's the ones that I didn't photograph that I remember the clearest.