The Idaho Statesman featured a writer’s fall trip to the San Juan Islands this week with a story called “Zimo: From fresh seafood to watching otters, you’ve got to love paddling and camping in the San Juan Islands.”

Writer Peter Zimowsky, who says he visits the San Juans nearly every fall with his wife, describes his experience of paddling a kayak through tranquil seas when a feisty otter apparently dive-bombed the kayak from below with a hard thump, then considered climbing aboard.

“We braced with our paddles and were expecting another furry torpedo to hit the boat,” writes Zimowsky – all the while trying to keep the couple’s golden retriever Phoebe from making close acquaintance with the otter.