The Adventures of Going on Adventures

Every summer, we return to California to see our families. This year we decided to link the trip with our travels and head to Seattle. Eric has never been much further north of San Francisco on the west coast, so our plan was to fly into Seattle and drive down the coast to California. We decided to add a trip to the San Juan Islands for a little adventure, kayaking with the orcas (which, by the way, terrifies and excites me at the same time). This side trip was simple to book, a ferry leaving right from Seattle, just a few blocks from our hotel. We prepaid our hotel in Friday Harbor, paid for the kayak trip, and purchased our ferry tickets. We were good to go.
Until we received word that our ferry caught on fire.
And would not be sailing during our scheduled time.
We learned this little nugget of disappointment through an e mail which Eric received while delayed at the Houston airport. Normally, delays at airports can be frustrating. For us, we used the time to figure out our options and this is what we came up with:

I've always had a fear of heights. This increased after my epic, elbow-destroying fall on a hike two years ago. As we took off in this plane, Eric excitedly turned to me and said, "I want to take flying lessons!!!," to which I responded, "I want to take Valium!" After twenty minutes of sheer terror and white-knuckling Eric's pant leg, I was able to relax, a little, and enjoy the views.

(Notice the steep angle at which we turn!)
But as we were landing, we saw a bald eagle, and I knew we were in a magical place. We enjoyed a harbor-front lunch, where we watched another bald eagle being chased by smaller birds, and then took the bus to Whale Watch Park, which is exactly what it sounds like.

The orcas will actually swim right up to these rocks. This didn't happen while we were there, but we did see orcas further out, and they were breath-taking! We finished our evening strolling along the harbor and are now relaxing from today's unexpected adventure to gear up for tomorrow's!

Location:Seattle to Friday Harbor