I was on a reindeer raunch in a Finland. I’d never seen more than two in the same space. So to see 800+ was an eye opener.
They’re quite grumpy animals outside of a Christmas story. Even when you’re feeding them they try jab you with their antlers.
Fun fact: male reindeer shed their antlers during the winter months. So all of Santa’s crew must be females.
Two tourists looked bloody foolish for complaining about using animal products in the gift shop. You can buy just about anything made of antler. And the antlers are found just by picking them up off the forest floor.
The same couldn’t be said about the Nordic stew, but reindeer meat is incredibly tasty and tender.
@AdmiralPrune I've been telling people for years that deer, including reindeer, don't just have those antlers for decoration. You try to pet them in the wild, you get what you get.
As far as reindeer stew, I want to try that someday.
On a whale watching boat somewhere in the Salish Sea between Washington and British Columbia
The boat crossed into Canadian waters briefly near Saturna Island (a Canadian patrol plane even seemed to be checking us out), and also passed north of Patos Island in US waters
looking east toward Mount Baker, past the Patos Island lighthouse
