Being born and raised in Seattle, you’d think that seeing orca whales would be a pretty normal or regular occurrence. Strangely enough, the only time I’ve seen any orca whales has been at Sea World and not in the wild, so I made it a goal to do some whale watching at some point to see them in their natural environment. I finally had an opportunity to do so this summer, so I booked a trip up to Vancouver with family on the Prince of Whales whale watching tour with high hopes and expectations.

Ironically, it turns out that orcas were not to be found on this trip whatsoever, however we did encounter a couple unseasonably active humpback whales! They ended up breaching on either side of the boat, so it was difficult to capture every single leap out of the water, especially with the waves and motion of the boat itself. Nevertheless, I got some of the best photos I’ve ever taken and I’d say they even turned out better than my humpback whale photos from my Alaska trip last year. We even encountered some sea lions and a majestic bald eagle as well.