Encounters with Whales .... Part 1

The trip starts out as a mystery trip, a birthday gift for my 88-year-old mother. Mystery trips are gifts our family like to give one another, especially when we can't think of anything suitable that the recipient doesn't already have. In the case of my mother, she loves surprise and adventure and the fact that it is a gift for both the giver and receiver.

It is a warm sunny March morning as we set out on our journey. I have secretly asked my mother's youngest sister Valentine to join us on our trip. When she arrives mother assumes she has come to wish us "Bon Voyage." We put our bags in the car and as we are about to take off and, as if it's an afterthought, I ask Auntie Val to join us. She answers yes and hops into the car. My mother is shocked that she can join us on the spur of the moment without luggage or so much as a toothbrush.

What she doesn't know is we packed Val's bag into the trunk earlier this morning. Mother enjoys the joke and is happy with this latest surprise. At the same time she tries to get us to tell her our mystery destination.

We spot our first whale a couple blocks from home, in a public garden which marks the entrance to the area we live in, the British Properties in West Vancouver. By coincidence this year's showpiece is a killer whale (Orca), made entirely of pansies, an inkling of what is to come.

Almost anyone who lives near the coast of B.C. has had at least one sighting of the real thing, orcas that live in the wild or in the Vancouver Aquarium. I have been fortunate to experience huge pods of orcas in the wild, some with as many as five males. Each male, his large dorsal fin held high, watches over his harem and offspring, swimming nearby. It is magical to see their rhythmic up and down movement, diving and surfacing as they make their way from one feeding ground to another. It is like watching an incredible black and white water ballet.

If they feel threatened the male slaps his fins on the water as a warning to his family. In an instant, everyone dives into the deep. They resurface closer to papa and the ballet continues.