Summer in Bellingham

June 1 to September 4, 2024

 

We spent our summer in Bellingham doing our normal medical stuff - the general doctor.  Specialists.  Dentists.  Eye doctors.  Lab tests.  Imaging stuff.  All kinds of doctors.  It gets the job done, and we both feel better seeing people who have become our medical team, who can see changes as we age and new body parts get used up or worn down.  Just kind of easier to see the same people who can see those changes, rather than always seeing someone new who says "hey, you're in great shape for a 70 year old."

Yes, I also turned 70!  Yikes, the first time I wrote that on a form was a bit frightening.  It's such a big number!  When we were 25 or so, did any of us think about what our lives would like at age 70?  No, of course we didn't!  We were too busy being young, exploring the world, figuring out who we were and how we fit into the greater scheme of things.

Now, at 70, well, some of us are still exploring the world.  We're pretty sure we know who we are by now.  And most of us have figured out that we're just one tiny dot in the world, and a tinier dot in the universe.  Maybe we've made the world a little better for having been here, maybe we haven't.  Hopefully we haven't made it any worse.  I like to think I've made it a little better for the people I've been close to: family, friends, colleagues, students.  But we really never know, we can only hope.

So with this momentous birthday, as my brother called it, I told Richard that what I really wanted to do was to go on another whale watch cruise.  I didn't want a big party, I didn't want anything fancy, I didn't even need a gift.  Just wanted to go out on the water and see whatever wildlife was around.

I didn't take any photos of whales, because then I end up focusing on the photos and not on what I'm seeing so I just enjoyed the whales.  So, photos of the ship, our great seat on the bow, islands, water, Mount Baker looming in the distance.

We encountered two young humpbacks.  Now, humpback whales are common in the Pacific, and they've started coming into the Salish Sea in recent years.  (The Salish Sea is used to describe the various straits and sounds and inlets that were originally named things like Puget Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca.  But they're all attached and connected, so the name the Salish Sea covers the combined waterways.)

Okay, back to our whales.  Humpbacks are called that because when they do a deep dive to hunt for food, they bend forward and arch their backs, hence the hump.  They dive down, and much of the time their tail comes up to help propel them deeper.

Now, the underside of the tail, called the fluke, is used to identify each humpback.  And, it seems that these two particular humpbacks had not yet been identified and named by the whale researchers!  Our naturalist onboard our ship went to the humpback ID website, and there were no matches - wow, new unidentified juvenile whales!  Exciting!

The naturalist contacted the researches nearby, and they said they'd come out and meet us.  She told the captain, and so our ship followed the two young humpbacks for probably a full hour, maybe more.  The two would surface, and breathe out, creating that typical puff of condensation.  They'd do a shallow dive.  Come back up, puff, dive again.  They'd do this maybe four to six times - and then they'd hunch their backs, flip their tales and do a deep dive!  SO exciting!

Sometimes the whales would surface way ahead of us, and the captain would speed the ship up so we could follow them.  Sometimes they'd head in a different direction, so we would too.  Regulations (or laws) state that boats need to stay 200 feet from sea mammals - but the whales don't know that, so occasionally they'd surface really close to the ship, so close we could hear them exhale in a loud whoosh!  WHOA!

It really was thrilling!  After roughly an hour of following the whales, the research vessel came up, and we let them take over.  It also was about time to head back to Bellingham.  But wow, what a great way to celebrate my birthday!

We also saw harbor seals, and stellar sea lions which are the really big sea lions that like to sit on buoys.  Seals and sea lions need to get out of the water after several hours and warm up in the sun, so buoys are very handy.  (Sea lions are larger, and have a different skeletal structure that allows them greater range of motion than seals - so seals can't get up on the buoys the way the sea lions can.)

We rented a house for the summer, which turned out to be in a wonderful part of Bellingham.  We were located across the street from a 70 acre park, and right by a designated green space that protects one of the small rivers or creeks in the area.  So we had deer walking through the yard on a regular basis.  Bunnies hanging out in the garden.  Hummingbirds in the trees, with the parents hovering overhead like drones, trying to get me to not sit outside and read so close to their nests.  I could hear the babies in the nest, making little ticking sounds!

Our landpeople lived in another house on the property, and kept a gorgeous garden!  They shared their bountiful harvest with us - zucchini, radishes, corn, eggplant, artichokes!!  I would periodically chase the deer out of the garden, or away from the rose bush.  And I shared the zucchini bread I made.

So it was a wonderfully relaxing summer.  Lots of reading outside, watching the gang of stags come through.  Really, grandpa stag was majestic - probably eight or ten points on his antlers!  A bit thick in the torso, so we could tell he was the oldest male in the posse.  He absolutely owned the neighborhood - he'd march down the street, and no one challenged him.  Every other deer either moved out of his way, or followed him down the street.  SO much attitude!  He knew he was all that!

One evening, Mr. Stag Sr and his gang decided to visit the neighbor's back yard.  I grabbed my camera, but by the time I went back outside, the three main stags were all sitting or lying down, eating all the dandelions they could reach.  I guess standing and eating dandelions was just too difficult, or they were too low, or hey, it had been a hard day.  It was funny to watch these magnificent and majestic animals lazily lying around and eating flowers from that position.

I did manage to meet up with most of my Seattle friends, and spend some time with my brother and sister-in-law.  Capped off the summer with the cruise to Alaska with another sister-in-law (the five previous blogs).  

 

And then we began our trip south to warmer climes.  But that will be another blog.