"Kritters" and more water thoughts

These are a few of the "kritters" that we ran into while out in the Pacific Northwest. The first shot is of a hoary marmot. It is a groundhog type mammal that lives on the mountain slopes. We had not seen any until we saw a poster at lunch one day and then saw them every day thereafter. This actually is a picture of a mom with two young marmots. On the same day, we saw a fox with her kits (I believe they are called Cascade foxes). They were just playing around. Next is a picture of a male orca fin. It is hard to get pictures of these amazing creatures, because unlike Shamu they don't jump on cue. Finally, some harbor seals are visible in the last picture. The wildlife was abundant and amazing.

On the water front, I have been thinking about our time on Orcas Island. Posted in every room with a faucet at our cabin were signs about conserving water. Here we were surrounded by water on an island (sound familiar????) and there were genuine concerns about running out of fresh water. Especially in the summer, there is little to no rain on Orcas and little freshwater except a lake in the state park. It seemed like a water rich environment - water everywhere (ocean water), lush trees (evergreens with waxy leaves that reduce evaporation), and abundant wildlife - yet in reality we were in a water poor situation for fresh water.