Right after the conference I went to Victoria and Vancouver with Jeanette. I have to say that after 2 long years of being pretty out of touch, these4 days were a "my cup runneth over" time. I have missed her more than I can express.
We went to Victoria and stayed with her Grandma for 2 days, walked
along the beach near the house, explored downtown, celebrated her birthday with family, stayed up late watching Anne of Green Gables, and had long talks :) Back in Vancouver we walked to Grenvel Island (i can't remember for sure the name :S), made supper at her
boyfriend's apartment (he was out of town!), walked all the way downtown for ice cream -always a tradition with us, then stayed up really late talking on the porch looking out over all the lights of Vancouver. It was just a fabulous time. I think we both need it more than I had realized.My favorite thing that we did
-a dream of mine for YEARS- was whale watching on her birthday!! We went down town to sign up -and got our tickets 20$ cheaper than we thought (always nice!), but found out that no whales (Orca's -Killer Whales) had been spotted for almost 4 days... We decided to take the chance and go for it anyway :) I had been praying since we
decided to look into it, as this would be my only chance- possibly ever- to see orcas in the wild! Now please, I realize how that sounds, quite similar to praying the Lord to provide
something frivolous such as a parking space close to the mall entrance -not quite sure the Lord appreciates those sorts of prayers. However, I felt really strongly about this after a very long hard week of Laboring for the Lord, not that I "deserved"
this by any means, but just that I would GREATLY be blessed and refreshed by a big display of His Glory, after all, these are HIS animals -He can make them to what ever He'd like :D They are my favorite animals (yes, "Free Willy" got to me as a kid) along with Lions, and as silly as it may sound 
to some of you, it's been a heart desire of mine to see them live and wild :) Anyway! We headed off in the morning, in the drizzle I might add, hoping and praying... It was
SOOO good to be out on the ocean, going fast with salt air making a mess of my hair, ohh, my heart a so happy just doing that... I was singing and just loving the zodiac ride itself! We first came upon some rocks and a lighthouse, where 2 different kinds of seals where chillin' and fighting actually. They where all males (so our guide told us) and they were barking and making quite a racket... it was really cool. There was a bald eagle among them too. (if you click on the pictures it will blow them
up so you can get a better look... and the one that looks like just water, if you blow it up, you can see the white spots of a whale under the water!) After that we headed our little zodiac boat (that only had 5 people including our Guide) out into the open ocean 
to see whales! We weren't out there too long before we found the "scout" for J-Pod heading our way... I'll never forget it. We were just off to the side of this whale's path and he turned toward our orange boat (our guide is says they recognize their boats, and his special signal he gives them), breaching every 10 seconds, then swam directing under the boat turning to the side to get a good look at us as he went by. AMAZING! But, that wasn't the end... the 
week before the papers had a front page article about the new baby addition to J-Pod, and wonder of wonders, we saw her! (I think it was a girl -they don't know for sure yet though). Honestly I couldn't believe it, but we saw mother and baby (who's white spots are a light orange) heading our way, they passed under our boat twice, it was SO
amazing. The water had a wave to it, but was crystal clear on the surface. Unfortunately my camera has a ridiculous 5 second delay and none of my pictures are anything other than dorsal fins, but here is one picture I found online our our special little baby whale! We also saw them "spy hop" a few times which is when they sorta 'nose up' out of the water to look around, and 
even one jumped clear out of the water, turned mid air and splashed back down! It was just phenomenal... everything I dreamed and prayed to see, we saw. It truly was a Glorious display of God's Creation. I cried at one point -I know, I know, I'm silly :) We also saw this one named "Ruffles" who has a trade mark 'crooked' dorsal fin that really does took like a Ruffles potato chip (he actually appears in one of the scenes in Free Willy, I found him the other day!), anyway, we were watching him circle around and around, chasing something beneath the surface, when suddenly this big salmon (about 30-40 lbs our guide guessed) jumped out of the water and we
watched Ruffles catch him in his mouth in the air! WOAH NELLY! Seriously, I couldn't believe my eyes! All too soon it was time to go back to the dock, our 3 hours were up... But what an amazing day. Our guide was totally pumped and was like "Wow, you guys, you saw everything today, it was classic, a perfect weather day... we haven't had a day like this in while!" I giggled to myself cause I know the One who orchestrated it all ;)
Then one more glimpse of God's Greatness as I flew home over the Canadian Rockies, praising the Lord for the time spent with Jeanette.
I love you, Shreddie :D (although I can't remember why I call you that...?)
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