The Whale Museum — Attraction in Friday Harbor

My friends and I were visiting Friday Harbor, and on the top of our list was The Whale Museum. We are very interested in marine mammal conservation and heard about the mission of the Museum: not only to curate and display artifacts related to whales in the Salish Sea area, but also education and research to promote the growth and sustainability of the ecosystem.

The Museum itself is in a lovely historic building in downtown Friday Harbor; it covers two floors and can easily be toured within 90 minutes to 2 hours. There’s a swell little gift shop on the ground floor, and you’ll have the opportunity to Adopt an Orca–how cool!

Special thanks to Casey in the gift shop/admission area; we spoke with her when we arrived about our love of whales and desire to do some whale-watching while we were on San Juan Island. As we finished our tour of the museum, she found us and let us know that there was a group of orcas sighted off Lime Kiln Point, and we were able to dash across the island and catch several sightings of the last three members of the group! It was a great start to our whale-watching adventures! We really appreciate Casey taking the time and effort to find us and let us know the whales were there. It made our day!

We’re so grateful for the work of the Whale Museum and will spread the word: The Museum is the best first stop for any visit to...

It’s a small, quaint little museum. It would seem as if they don’t have much but I feel if you truly spend time to look around, you’ll realize they offer a nice amount of information.

I found their charm stemmed from the “little things”. Their stained glass windows are gorgeous and fit the theme beautifully. I also enjoyed the view out of their rear windows which face the harbor.

My favorite part of the museum revolves around the whale pods. Upon entering, you are given a card which lists the names of a couple of whales you have to find/track and learn about. The cool thing about the pods featured in the museum is that they are real orca pods. I found it awesome to learn about the pods at the museum and then go see them during my whale watching excursion. They also house the whale naming lottery there at the museum, which is pretty neat.

If you have extra time while in Friday Harbor, I’d recommend taking a walk through the quaint museum. You may just learn something that can save a whales life!

Parking is located a couple blocks down. It isn’t too...

Friday Harbor is one of our favorite short get-away destinations and each time we go there, we visit the Whale Museum. It has simply become one of our "routines". But our last visit to the museum was a little peculiar. My in-laws were here with us during our last visit a month ago. Our return ferry was only 1 hour after the museum opened. So we were kind of in a rush. By the time we got on to the ferry, my in-law realized he had forgotten his camera bag in the museum, but it was only 15 minutes before the ferry was to leave and it's too late for us to go back to retrieve the bag. On a whim, I called the museum and the lady at the gift shop picked up my call. She immediately went to check where the bag was left and promised us she would run to the ferry to deliver our lost bag. Just before the ferry left, she arrived with the bag and handed the bag to the ferry worker. We can't appreciate her kind help enough. This is just a small example showing how the museum staff care about their customers. We really love this tiny caring museum and will certainly...