Hi Everyone:  Well, I have just returned for a wonderful week on Vancouver Island.  The weather was incredible, with only 1 day of stormy weather.  We spent 3 days at a cabin on the beach, just relaxing and enjoying the view, the water and the sun.

This is a picture of Lloyd with his Mom and Dad and brother-in -law Clive.  Lloyd’s sister Karen and her grandson Cody are likely off digging in the sand next to the water. 

Now this is the picture of the next day with the surf up, the wind and the storm that blew through.  Thank goodness it only lasted a day.  I know that it was not as bad as the people on the East coast are experiencing with Earl.  Hopefully the damage for this hurricane will not be bad.

Yesterday, we went whale watching and saw tons of whales, porpoises, California sea lions, and other wild life…no bears.  We were in what is knows as a cigar boat with about 8 others for about 3 and a half hours.  The water was calm, the sun shinning and we managed to get wind and sun burns but a good time was had by all.

Here is a picture of Cappuccino. He came within about 30 yards of the boat. You can see one of the motors in the bottom right hand side of the picture.  These whales are used to the boats and the people and take no notice unless they are chased.  So if you just sit there they will swim around the boats.  They are as curious about us, as we are about them .  All in all we saw about 12 whales.  The tour guide even put the microphone down into the water so that we could hear them talking.  Just amazing.

All the whales are named, although they do have official names and Cappuccino’s official name is K-21.  This means he was the 21st whale identified in the K-Pod.  These whales are known as resident whales as they are usually off Vancouver Island for about 4 months during the summer.  I didn’t know this but all whales are a distinguishing mark near their dorsal fin so when they come up for air you can tell who is who.  Also, there is a matriarch who is in charge of the pod.  For K-Pod, this is “Granny” and apparently she is 99 years old.  Cappuccino is 24 years old.  When a whale is born into a Pod, they stay with the Pod for as long as they live. 

Tomorrow I will get to posting some more cards but for today, I wanted to share this great experience.  And I still have 2 weeks of vacation left to do some more cards.

Until next time……

Karen