The first State Charlie Visited in America was Washington State. This is the only State to be named after an American president. It is also known as the Emerald State because it is the wettest place in America! All this rain creates beautiful rainforest along the Olympic peninsula, so Charlie enjoyed climbing trees and sleeping in a rainforest for a couple of nights. It’s hard to escape the rain here but Charlie has managed it. However, he has seen a lot of foggy days because the Pacific Ocean is so cold that when the warm air from the land mixes with the cold air from the sea it creates huge fog clouds that roll in off the Ocean. This is why this state was chosen to be the perfect setting for the Twilight books and films.

Charlie has been busy enjoying lots of adventures and making new friends. One of his highlights was when he went to stay with an American family who taught him some traditional campfire songs. He is looking forward to teaching his Charford friends these new songs.

He also enjoyed a visit to Seattle, a busy city on the harbour. From here we boarded a ferry that took us all to Port Townsend. This beautiful seaside harbour town offered whale-watching trips and Charlie was desperate to try this.

The next day we climbed onboard a little boat in search of Orcas, also known as Killer Whales. This alternative name is appropriate as they are one of the Oceans largest predators, measuring at 9.5 metres when they are fully-grown. They prey on seals, turtles, sea lions, birds, fish, squid and octopus. Orcas will even attack other whales, including the enormous blue whale, which can measure over three times their size.

With sleek black backs, bright white bellies and large eye patch markings they stand out from the other whales. Luckily, we found a pod (family) playing around the shore. They treated us to a show of jumping out the water and splashing their tails hard down on the surface to cause ripples of waves to rock our boat. As well as a means of having fun, this splashing is away of communicating between the pod members and a technique used when hunting. Killer whales also use echolocation to communicate and gather information about an objects size and location. Thankfully, Orcas don’t like bears or humans for dinner so we were all safe!

 

CLICK HERE TO SEE WHALE WATCHING VIDEO