Last week I found myself in the middle of a beach house community nestled on an island in Washington State. I visit this island often, but I tend to stay on the main roads. I travel here to commute to work each day, but I haven’t explored the heart of this city until recently.
I have a friend that’s house sitting in one of the beach houses, giving me the excuse to explore. The houses wrap around in a curve shape hugging the Puget Sound on one side, and a lake of some kind on the other. These houses are quaint, but cost enough to fund my tiny house dreams for years.
The time was 5:00pm, and the sky was putting on a show full of cotton candy clouds. The reflections had me enamored with the views. While walking to the nearby beach, I noticed an otter running up the road. I’m not sure where he was heading, perhaps the local supermarket, but he was clearly taking a break from the cold waters.
The otter was just the start of the National Geographic episode I found myself in. Minutes later while balancing on shore washed logs, and sipping on my very first La Croix I witnessed a pod of killer whales in the distance.
I almost didn’t notice the whales, but the steam like projections coming from the middle of the water gave them away. Washington is known for killer whale sightings, but I’d never seen them until then. They were too far for a photo, but the old faithful like streams shooting to the sky will forever be burned into my memory.
As if the otter and the whales weren’t enough to elicit a sense of navigating the wild, a bald eagle perched high in a tree caught my eye. He was also too far away to photograph, and nearly too far to see, but his white head among the dark branches gave away his location.
Split down the middle.
I’m not usually a beach person, but when they are close by I find myself getting lost in the sounds of the waves. The crashes against the shore in the darkening light bring a sense of peace to my soul like falling asleep in front of a warm fire on a cool autumn evening.
Next time you find yourself in need of being one with the wild, venture to an island and see what adventures you get yourself into.
Q: Ever seen a whale outside of the TV box? The zoo doesn’t count.
