As seasoned travelers and cruisers, we really should know better than to fall into a tourist trap shore excursion like whale watching. In our defense, my parents have been on a similar excursion in the past where they effortlessly spotted giant Humpback Whales. I know there’s no guarantee on these things, but don’t you know that after paying a beaucoup you just have to see something better than a fat, sunbathing sea lion?
Well, we didn’t.
After 3 1/2 hours, we managed to see a group of ten morbidly obese sea lions, a few harbor seals whose useless flippers earned them the nickname of “harbor sausages,” tons of misleading debris, and not. a. single. whale.
We had even been told beforehand from other cruisers how likely an orca sighting would be – sources say that they’ve been everywhere this year, even in the Vancouver harbor, which is extremely rare. Apparently, they were too busy hanging out in the Vancouver harbor to be anywhere near Victoria today. This is such a letdown because, at one point in my life, Free Willy was my favorite movie. That’s the sole reason I wanted to see some killer whales in their natural habitat, just to know that they were living peacefully like the movie promised.
We did manage to witness two creatures that we see on a regular basis in Florida, seagulls and porpoises. Our conversations about these went as follows:
Guide: Earlier today we saw porpoises, which means we’re likely to see them this afternoon
Dad: We can see porpoises from our balcony in Florida
Me: Rich People Problems.
Me: What kind of bird is that?
Mom: Same dang seagulls we have in Florida
I guess the land equivalent of this is if, while traveling through the Canadian wilderness in the upcoming week, we manage to only encounter deer and rabbits. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. In the meantime, here’s a highlight reel of our whale watching – as you can imagine, it’s not very interesting WITHOUT ANY WHALES TO WATCH.
Leave a Reply