Phew, we were the last vehicle to get on the ferry; we had to put our mirrors in and just squeezed in.
Coming back to the mainland caused a little drop in spirits, despite the beauty of Deception Pass State Park (our overnight campground) as everything is less rural, noisier and just busier. The San Juan Islands are a treat and even if you go for one day as a foot passenger with a bike, it’s worth the trip (1/2 hour or so on the ferry).
As we had seen no orcas we booked a trip for the following day, telling them we were booking sunshine and orcas, which was exactly what we got! We also saw porpoises, another bald eagle, cormorants, other sea birds (not our strong point), humpback whales and stellar sealions. We saw no other whale watching boats, probably because the forecast was for 30-40 knots of wind.
Ironically the whale watching trip was off the Canadian and San Juan Islands coastlines in a super boat with a cruising speed of 25 knots. Our boat was half empty and we had a fabulous day.
There are 3 ‘resident’ orca pods, J, K and L. We saw mostly K, but with at least L88 ‘visiting’.

 Each humpback has a distinctive tail

 Each orca has a distinctive saddle marking, this is L88

Pectoral fin slapping

 Mum and 4 yr old

spy-hopping