Westside Sunsets

When I used to visit the island for a week or two every summer, the hour before and after sunset were my favorite hours of the day. Once I moved here full time, got a job, etc. it became easier to just stay in at night, but I've been reminding myself just how great it is to be out and about around 9 PM on these late summer days. This past week in particular I've made it out to take in more than one west side sunset.

On Thursdays and Saturdays at Lime Kiln, you can take a free guided tour to the top of the lighthouse. Years ago, I used to volunteer and help give these tours, but it had been several years since I'd been up in the lighthouse. It's a spectacular view, even more so in the golden hours of the evening.

The light inside the Lime Kiln Lighthouse, looking south

Sunset as seen through one of the windows in the lighthouse stairwell

It also allowed me an aerial view of my favorite rock to watch whales from. Many of the photos on this blog were taken while sitting on this rock!

The whales have been around a lot at sunset, and after striking out on the 10th, I went back on the 11th to try my luck. Success! I got to Land Bank in time to see the second half of J- and K-Pods head south. Actually, it's easy to say "Js and Ks were there", but in actuality, it was only part of each pod. Since the whales dipped out west on the 8th, present in inland waters have been J2, the J14s, the J16s, and L87 (J-Pod "Group A" without J19 and J41), and K-Pod (minus K21, K16, and K35 - the roamers).

 

I just love seeing the blows illuminated in the evening light. There's just nothing like seeing whales at sunset....

After the whales passed by, I just sat for a while, taking in the beautiful scenery.

As the sun was going down, the "Super Moon" was rising:

It was hard to know which way to look - watch the moon come up, or the increasingly orange sun go down? Ah, the difficult decisions we face.... :)

As amazing as this sunset was, the one to follow a couple days later would blow this one out of the water. I've seen a lot of sunsets in my day, and the evening of July 13th was one of the best I've ever seen. So good, it deserves its own blog post.