The Wildlife Had Snorkels

We are on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. We had plans in the morning, so I did not get to the shore until late morning to see what wildlife was out and about. I saw several porpoises and tried to photograph them, but apparently I had forgotten how quickly a porpoise can disappear. I spotted one leaping completely out of the water in my peripheral vision. By the time I swung the camera around, I captured an excellent photograph of the splash.

I was wearing black jeans and the sun was beating down. For the first time in two weeks, I was uncomfortably hot. I thought my legs were going to spontaneously combust. I elected to go back and get into shorts and wound up doing other things and didn’t get back out until later in the day. I intended to find wildlife and found people instead. Regis noticed someone swimming across Puget Sound in our direction accompanied by a boat. After arriving on our shore, the swimmer got out, spent a couple minutes, and got back in the water to swim back. Regis estimated the crossing at roughly five miles.

About fifteen minutes later, I spotted something moving through the water close to shore. Seal? Porpoise? Otter? I couldn’t tell. I was excited enough that I considered calling Regis back so he could get closer with the camera. Before I did, I took a photograph and zoomed in on the image.

It had a snorkel.

Apparently, it was a good day for observing the wildlife of Bainbridge Island. The human variety, anyway.

Knee update: I saw an orthopedic doctor in Port Townsend who confirmed that I have significant bone-on-bone damage behind the kneecap. He gave me a gel injection, which may help but can take several weeks to have an effect. In the meantime, we finally bought crutches.

What a difference. Taking weight off that leg has made me considerably more mobile than I’ve been. Crutches are admittedly useless when crawling over driftwood on a beach, but for ordinary getting around they are working remarkably well. I only wish we’d thought of them sooner. We had tried a knee scooter, but it turns out that something with tiny wheels is not particularly useful for someone who keeps trying to go outside and look for wildlife.