San Juan Islands
San Juan Islands, by classic float plane
The San Juan Islands are beautiful from land and sea. Whether you’re hiking, biking, kayaking, sailing, or just riding the ferry, you can’t help but be struck by that. But what about from the air?
This video is primarily about the plane, but I like it because it gives you a real sense of what soaring over the islands in a small plane would be like.
It’s an amphibian plane called the Nardi FN.333…
San Juan Islands – scuba diving
OK, I’ll say it right up front. We do NOT go scuba diving on our San Juan Islands trips! I’m a wimpy warm water diver, who only likes the tropics (think British Virgin Islands!)
However, even though that water looks pretty chilly to me, it’s fascinating to know what lives down there! The undisputed rulers of the local seas are the orca whales, but there are a ton of other lesser-known, and much less-seen species that live on rocks, walls, and tidal areas around the islands…
San Juan Islands – The ferry ride
Wondering about the San Juan Islands? This video shows you what the ferry travel is like out to the islands, and around the islands.
If you’re going on our tour, you can ignore the part about which highway exits to take — we’ll handle all the driving! Just enjoy the part about being out on the water. It’s a beautiful ride, to a beautiful place. 
I always think the ferry ride is very special…
Rosario Resort – think we should buy it?
The famous, historic resort on Orcas Island – Rosario Resort – is up for auction this month. We were just there last month as part of our San Juan Islands tours.
There’s a beautiful mansion built by retired tycoon Robert Moran back in the early 1900s, that’s the heart… Full article…
So there we were… with baby orca and big daddy
We just wrapped up a couple of women’s tours to the San Juan Islands. As always, we went orca whale watching as part of the trip.
Every trip is different, and you never know what you’re going to see, but this year our two groups were fortunate to see a couple of very special things…
San Juan Islands – old friend foxglove
It’s almost time for our San Juan Islands trips this year, and I’d be wiling to bet that we’ll see bald eagles, orca whales, and foxglove (digitalis). We often see them when we’re hiking on Orcas Island. (The foxgloves, that is, not the whales!) …
Photo: Ferry boat arriving Orcas Island
Friday photo — this one from the San Juan Islands:
The San Juan Islands are an archipelago of hundreds of islands near Seattle. It’s a gorgeous area, and full of wildlife — “the land of orcas and eagles”. Ferries ply the waters, and are the most common method of inter-island travel. This ferry is arriving at Orcas Island, the largest island of the chain…
Whales trump Bush
In the latest development in the battle of good vs. evil whales vs. the government, a judge has overruled President Bush: the Navy cannot be exempted from a sonar ban.
Environmentalists have fought the use of sonar in court, saying it harms whales and other marine mammals. They won an… Full article…
Bush trumps court, Navy trumps whales
Powerful navy sonar is known to disturb marine mammals such as whales and dolphins, and the military itself has admitted that the sonar could permanently injure them.
Earlier this month, a US District Judge issued an injunction limiting the navy’s use of certain sonar during training sessions along the coast because of such issues. President Bush then issued a memorandum exempting the navy from the applicable environmental laws…
Killer whales and navy sonar
The resident orcas (also known as killer whales) of the Puget Sound area near Seattle are endangered. Biologist Ken Balcomb has been studying them for years, investigating a trend where mature, healthy orcas disappeared for unknown reasons.
While listening to the whales with underwater microphones, he found a clue…
