EPIC Whale Watching & Bald Eagles
Epic.
That’s the only word I can use that can come close to the feeling after our amazing whale watching tour in Juneau, Alaska last week. For those of you who don’t follow me on Facebook, I was able to take off 9 days off and head on up to Seattle to hop on a cruise with my family – a well needed family vacation where we ate, ate more, played games, read books, ate again, saw some shows….and saw the gorgeous nature that is Alaska and Canada! I can’t thank my parents enough for bringing us on this vacation full of memories and I’m very proud to say that no one in our group brought a camera…you know, because why bother when you’ve got a professional photographer with her gear always present?!?! Works for me!
***With that being said, I’m always up for discussion if your family is heading somewhere cool and you’d like a professional photographer to tag along with you to take all of your family photos for you! Bali, what??!
**** Seriously. You guys know I love to travel! Hit me up if you want to include me in your family vacations and are going somewhere amazing! 🙂
Now to the epic-ness. I had the opportunity to board a small. VERY SMALL. fishing boat in Juneau with our captain and my family to head out to see if we could spot any humback whales. Boy were we in for a treat! About 45 min. into our tour we saw things our captain said she hadn’t experienced together on one tour before and was incredibly impressed by our lucky evening….not to mention the amazing 60 degree blue-sky kind of weather we had! Perfect storm for a girl armed with her Nikon D700 and a 70-200mm lens.
So, sit back – and honestly, enjoy some of my family vacation photos! It’s not every day you have a whale watching tour sent to you on your computer screen…….or is it?
My favorite and squeel-worthy photos of a large humpback whale breeching out of the water about 100 yards from our boat….and the splash he/she made!
We saw a ton of whale tale.
And then there was this guy.
He came up about 50 meters off our stern and literally made me scream and instinctively try to run to safety. Except on a little boat anxiously awaiting your next whale siting there’s no where to run.
Du-dun. Du-dun. Du-dun. You know, Jaws music? It was that scary.
Our little family!
More tale – we came across a mama whale and her baby. And by baby, I mean her 40 foot ginormous, playful kid who jumped a ton for us and even stuck around to let us watch him feed!
baby jumping…mama hanging out.
baby coming up to say hello! 
Our whale expert explained that the mom had gone belly up and was slapping her 10foot long ‘arm’ to call the baby to stop playing around and come feed while she was upside down. This lasted a good 10min. and I envision all of my mom friends knowing exactly how she felt……quit playing and come have your dinner! Now!
Our boat and the boys.
My sister in law and her penguin beenie!!
Bald Eagle!
As if humpback whale watching wasn’t enough, we had the joy of going past a great bald eagle perched in the bay on our way back! He’s majestic and I only wished we’d gotten closer….regardless, he behaved well for my camera, so enjoy your national bird in flight:
HOW FUN!!! These pictures are amazing and it looks like you guys had a fantastic time. I’ve never been to Alaska so it’s fun to sort of live vicariously through your vacation…hehe! Can’t wait to see more. Big hugs friend!
These are amazing. I love nature, and enjoyed looking at your pictures.
Amazing pictures!!! Looks like you had a blast!!
Gorgeous pictures! Can’t wait to catch up and hear more about it 🙂
Whoa, Jessica–magnificent. I’m going to show them to Grampa tomorrow. I love the whales, but the best photos are the eagles. I’m still waiting for you to get up here to take a photo of the Sutter Buttes (mountain range to the north) for me and next years’ calendar.