Newt Jack City

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BOOM!!!!!!!!!

Are those giant footsteps I hear? Could it be Gojira, come to terrorize the Pacific Northwest?! No, dear citizens, fear not! They are the footsteps of the incredible, stupendous, one and only, JePhD Zilla Woods Deluxe blog returning to the internet!

There is life yet in this monster! Although I feel that the last post was written by candlelight centuries ago, it is not... yet... dead. It took four whales, a sea lion, and a pile of newts, but dammit it is back!

Last week, Bridget and I took a VERY WELL DESERVED vacation over Memorial Day weekend, and visited the San Juan Islands. Well, we only set foot on one of the islands: Orcas Island. Orcas is the biggest and tallest of the three islands. For those of you who don't know: the San Juan's are north of Seattle, in the straight of Juan de Fuca, and actually a little farther north than Victoria B.C.!

The first thing when we got off the ferry was a little whale watching. We were SO.EX.CIT.ED>>> And we were not let down! We were lucky enough to find a pod of four transient orcas attacking a sea lion! It was too unbelievable. Also note: orcas as MASSIVE. I never really realized how freakin' big they are. We found them trying to drown a sea lion, which is pretty darn difficult. I think the sea lion probably got away, as it looked like a good swimmer? It also sort of looked like the orcas weren't trying that hard, and might have just been having some cruel fun.

At one point, the sea lion made a dash for it, and cut in front of our boat, probably only 50 feet from us. The killer whales followed it, and thus were also only 50 feet away! It was pretty incredible! I wanted to post you this video, but it is too long and I don't have time to edit it. So, instead you will get this shorter, shakier video, of some whales breaching and smashing down on the sea lion:



Whales are so cool.

After that, we checked in to our lovely B&B, The Kangaroo House. (Apprarently a kangaroo actually lived there in the 1920's and 30's). This place was super cute, and super fun. And the hosts make incredibly delicious and super fancy breakfasts, which we ate with delight.

On the second day, we went for a 6.8 mile hike up Mount Constitution, Orcas Island's and the San Juan Islands' highest point. It was very steep but very fun, and we were also graced with sunny weather! At one point, we found a massive congregation of newts, hanging out and mating. Essentially, it was a newt orgy. There were easily 100 newts total! Here is a small sample:



And what else, you ask? Well, there are lots of things to report. BUT, in the interest of keeping this blog alive, I will leave this post relatively short (we don't want to wear it out!) However, I shall leave you with this: I am headed to the steel capital of Canada tomorrow (Hamilton) to present at a conference! It should be fun, and will be a really good opportunity to practice my job talk skills. Plus, I get to see Ray and Allison, so that is totally radical!

Phil Collins is a hero. Discuss.