After picking up Brian Thursday evening, we ended up talking and playing games until after 2:00. Needless to say, we slept in late on Friday. I'd already let everyone know that I wouldn't be into work, so it was good to sleep in.

We ended up getting up a little earlier than planned, but it was at least ten before I rolled out of bed when I heard Brian rooting around in the living room. We got some breakfast, stopped by work, and pretty much wasted the afternoon away playing games (Brian quickly became addicted to SSX Tricky).

That evening Seth, Brian, and I met up with Katie, Kate, and Beth down at Hopvine. Dinner was good and we had a nice time talking with the girls. They're a lot of fun. I was hoping a few others might make it to join us, but no one could make it. Ah, well.

We went to bed early Friday so we could get leave by 7:30 and make the ferry from Anacortes to Friday Harbor. Why, you ask? Because we decided to go whale watching and we had to take the 9:35 ferry so we were in Friday Harbor before the whale-watching boat left at 1:00. Everything worked out fine, but we had a lot of time to kill between arriving in town and when the tour left, so we had some breakfast and walked around.

The day before the tour didn't find any whales, but we arrived at our destination just as a pod of orcas were surfacing, playing, and hunting for salmon. My camera was a bit unreliable, but we got to see some whales fairly close up. It was very cool and a lot of fun. If any of the pictures turn out to show anything other than rippling water I'll try to get them posted here.

The tour had a naturalist on board who gave us some information on the whales. This group was J pod. It's made up of 22 whales that live in the Sound full time (called "resident" whales. There are another type of whales called "transient" whales that spend time out to sea as well as in the Sound -- and the two types do not get along). There, that's your lesson for today.

After the tour we had to wait for the next shuttle (which left about two hours later), so we grabbed lunch/dinner with Jennifer (another member of the whale-watching tour that we spent some of the trip chatting with). We all caught the ferry back and then drove home. We got back around 9:30, very tired and ready to be lazy for a while. It's funny how the water can make you so tired.

We made plans with Seth to take the Seattle Underground Tour tomorrow morning. Soon I'm off to bed, so we can get up take the tour before I have to come home and leave for Scott and Chaz's wedding.

Busy, busy.