Water sloshed off the animal's smooth skin - first in sheets, then in tiny rivulets and finally in drops that formed concentric circles on the water's surface. There are other places like this in the West; magical places where, planted on terra firma, we humans can be lucky enough to steal glimpses into the world of our marine mammalian counterparts and watch whales from our turf. Every year, these speckled filter-feeders make the 10,000-mile haul from the Gulf of Alaska down to the protec...
