Goofin' Off With a Whale of a Tail

Can it really have been two months since my last post?  Time does fly...or swim...or splash...

Have you ever heard a whale of a tale?  I've got one for you...but it's more of a whale of a tail.  However, if you're not interested in my Whale of a Tail, feel free to scroll on down to see the pictures of my updates.  

Whale of a Tail

In August, my sister and I were talking on the phone about bucket lists.  She's always wanted to see whales in the wild, and it had been pre-COVID since we've taken a sisters' trip.  She had planned on coming up to Seattle for a visit, and I was just going to book a whale watching excursion out of our hometown of Edmonds.  

Then...I received an email from Royal Caribbean about huge discounts on end-of-season cruises to Alaska.  They had been marked down more than usual this year.  I checked out the rates and couldn't believe what I saw.  Well, we could take a 4-hour whale watching tour for around $150...or we could take a 7-night cruise to Alaska for about $349.  I called my sister and asked her what she wanted to do.  I think it was pretty much a no-brainer decision for both of us.  And while I've seen whales a few times, what we experienced was like nothing I've ever seen before.  

We boarded the boat and had a fabulous time.  We booked three excursions, and I actually checked two things off my bucket list.  The food on board the ship was great as always, and our waitress was nothing less than amazing.  We managed to get a window table every evening.  I think my sister thought I had some sort of special "in" with the wait staff.  Nope.  Just good luck or good karma, I'm guessing.  It never hurts to treat staff well.  

Did I mention we crossed off TWO bucket list items?  One of the items was dog sledding with a professional Iditarod team.  I have to admit, I was hesitant on this one.  I was so worried about the treatment of the dogs.  I much prefer to see my animals in their natural habitat...except, let me tell you, these dogs were in their natural habitat.  From the moment they could hear our vehicle approaching, they got so excited!  We could hear them so excited in the distance, and they were literally jumping with excitement as we pulled up...I mean jumping with tails wagging excitedly.  

Once we got buckled in, the dogs were so ready to take us for a ride.  It was so much fun!  Once it was over, we got to give them lots of pets, hugs and snuggles.  I am not a "dog person," but these ones were just so happy to be with us.  As a bonus, ALL of the dogs on our team had Disney names!  I believe this guy's name was Baloo.  

Cruising to Alaska is very scenic!  The weather cooperated, and so we were able to spend a lot of time out on our balcony listening to music and/or reading books.  This was a typical evening view from our balcony.  

My sister was so excited to finally see some whales.  She'd look out over the balcony and see a wave breaking and think it was a whale.  Having seen a few whales before, I assured her it wasn't.  She didn't believe me until...our first encounter with whales.  We spotted them off of Beluga Point...they were skimming the surface occasionally.  Can you guess what kind of whales we saw?  Belugas, of course.  LOL  But she really had no idea what was coming in the next few days.  

We had booked a whale watching excursion out of Ketchikan, I think it was.  (You can book whale watching excursions from pretty much any port in Alaska.)  The first hour went by, and the only thing we really saw was a whale spout water from a distance.  I was getting nervous that she wouldn't get to see any whales...but I worried for no reason.  The captain spotted some action in the distance.  We slowly made our way over there.  There were three whales over there, most likely feeding...a mama and her baby and a third whale...all humpbacks.  Within about 10 minutes, the word must have gotten out to the other whales, because all of a sudden there were about 13 whales around us.  At times, they got pretty close.  My sister learned the signs of how to spot when a whale was about to surface, and now I'm pretty sure she'll never mistake a wave breaking for a whale.  We had about 45 minutes with these whales before we had to head back in.  

And then...as our ship was making its way back south to Seattle, we had some gorgeous weather.  We were again outside on our balcony just enjoying the sounds of the water and the scenery.  I look out and see some spouts, so we stand up and get over to the balcony and watch whales in the distance...and then they got closer.  They'd pass us by, we'd sit down, and about 5 minutes later, there would be another small group.  The running joke was that if we wanted to see more whales, we just had to sit down.  But...on one particular trip out to the balcony...we can see we are getting closer to a whale...

But unlike the other whales, this one came right up near the ship.  If you don't know, the tail of a whale goes up in the air when it's about ready to go back under the water for a few minutes (they can stay under for up 10 minutes).  Now, this particular whale apparently wanted to be sure we got our pictures because before he went under he put his tail in the air and literally waved it back and forth about 10 times (like you'd see at a Sea World show).  It's like he was telling us he hoped we'd had a good trip. Here's the best pic we got of it!  It was soooo close!  It's our "whale of a tail".  

Now...let's see how all my projects are coming along.  

Mickey and Pirate Friends Cross Stitch

Where I Left Off on Last Post

Above is my last update...and below is my current progress!  I've got another page finish...and Mickey's pirate hat is beginning to come into view in the lower right corner of the last page finish.  Goofy's finally getting a friend to join him!

Whale of a Quilt Finish...or make that fish...

I had been working on a quilt in my last blog post that had fish in the blocks...kind of fitting given my whale of a tail story.  Here is what the finished blocks looked like.  

Well, I was lucky enough to find a little time to finish off this quilt top before I went on the cruise.  I haven't been able to get my sewing machine out yet since then, but I hope to in the next few weeks.  I have been cutting up scraps into "pre-cut" sizes like 5" squares and 10" squares, etc.  Trying to clean up a few things before I start a new project.  

I like the way it turned out all assembled and with the border.  I think I might have changed the borders if I had done a little more planning rather than following the pattern.  I would have made the inner border yellow and the outer border green.  But since this one is headed to Project Linus at the next drop-off, I'm more than happy with it and to have another finish.  

So that's what Mrs. Goofin' Off has been up to.  Can't wait to catch up with all you awesome stitching and quilting buddies!  

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