USA Part 2: The North-West Corner of the Pacific North-West

Stan and Kay live on Gooseberry Point overlooking Lummi Bay just north of the city of Bellingham. To the south/left of their view over Lummi Bay is Lummi Island, one of the many San Juan Islands.

With a population of some 80,000 people, Bellingham is a busy seaport with both working and pleasure boats in abundance. It is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Whatcom County in the State of Washington. Situated about 1.75hours north of Seattle and 1hour south of Vancouver it has good access to major metropolitan areas but also the large expanse of the San Juan Islands, an archipelago between the northwest corner of the US mainland and Vancouver Island.

Arriving in Bellingham just before midday, our first afternoon involved lunch at the Boundary Bay Brewery (and a sample of their beer!), a tour round the city and then dinner in the evening with some of the extended family out on the deck.

Saturday started with a tour of the area north of the house up to the Canadian border, visiting other bays and stopping at one or two little fishing places. After a late lunch and a leisurely afternoon soaking up the sun on the deck, we headed to a curious sculpture park nestled in a grove of evergreens above Lake Whatcom; Big Rock Garden Park has 37 permanent works by international and local artists (some good, some weird). The day was finished off enjoying wine and cheese on their boat, a 36ft Grand Banks Yacht, as the sun set over the harbour.

Sunday's itinerary was a drive down the cliff side byway that hugs the base of Chuckanut Mountain and weaves its way through evergreen forests along the rocky shoreline of Chuckanut Bay to the oyster beds and tidal flats of the Samish lowlands. Our first main stop was La Conner, situated on the delta near the mouth of the Skagit River. It was founded in the early 1860's and is Skagit County's oldest community. Deception Pass is a strait separating Whidbey Island from Fidalgo Island that is spanned by twin bridges (the bridges have been a National Historic Monument since 1982) and the viewpoints offer the dramatic seascape of Puget Sound. Its nearest town is Oak Harbor, now supporting a large naval base. Our final destination of the day was Coupeville, the second oldest town in the State of Washington, where we enjoyed a fantastic seafood dinner including freshly harvested mussels that are farmed in the town.

"Behind" Bellingham is the impressive Mount Baker, still snow topped, about 31 miles due East. It has the second-most thermally active crater in the Cascade Range after Mount Saint Helens and is the second-most heavily glaciated after Mount Rainier. At 10,000 ft., it is the third-highest mountain in Washington State and also one of the snowiest places in the world apparently. This is where we headed the following day to follow one of the trails. The weather was great and we had good views of the peak.

Since Kay and Stan have access to the beach from their garden, Tuesday allowed us the opportunity to take a walk along the beach and a paddle in the sea. We also got introduced to Stan's cinema room in the evening!

After promising a ride in the boat, we finally got out into Bellingham Bay on Wed. Initially hugging the coastline along Chuckanut Bay, Stan then took the boat through to and around the nearest San Juan Islands of Vendovi, Eliza and Lummi. The water was rough as we left harbour and the wind had got up rather a lot. By the time we were returning the wind had dropped, the sun was out and the bay was like a mill pond. The boat is called "Slow Dancer", its max speed is only 10 knots, but that's still faster than my non-existent yacht! ;-)

Thursday, our final day with Kay and Stan, we popped across the border into Canada. In Vancouver we met up with two other people off last year's Peru trip – Gord and Linda. We had lunch together on Granville Island followed by a trip round Stanley Park. Including our visit to Dublin in July where we met up with two lads off our Peru trip, we have now successfully met up with 60% of the group!

So, Friday we returned to Seattle for the final leg of our trip. And that's where I will pick up on the final email.

Until then,

Kath & Andy

---------------------------------------------------------
"Don't ask what the world needs - ask what makes you come alive and then go & do that.

Because what the world needs is people who have come alive" Howard Martin
---------------------------------------------------------

Unleash the passion, indulge the dream
www.passion4travel.co.uk

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USA Part 1

Our big trip this year has bought us back to the USA. This was prompted by meeting an American couple on the Peru trip last year that resulted in an invite to visit a town called Bellingham in Washington State, part of the US Pacific North West area, close to the Canadian border. As I write this we are currently travelling north from Seattle to Bellingham.

 

On the way we had a stopover in Washington DC on the other side of the country, 5 hours from here by plane. Our first evening was a quick visit to a local pub for snacks and bed. By the time my head hit the pillow we had been awake for 21 hours and needless to say I slept like a log!

 

Our first day was spent exploring the National Mall, an area approx. 2.25 mile long stretching from the Lincoln Memorial in the West to Capitol Hill in the East, with a short leg jutting off to the north. This is where the USA commemorates those who served and were killed in action with numerous war memorials. It is also the place where some of the nation's greatest Presidents are honoured here. Unknown yet familiar, many of the landmarks along here have featured in films and programs so the whole experience was a little surreal.

 

Our first stop, on this northern leg was 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, better known as the White House! A 1.5 miles walk directly south of our hotel led us to the North Lawn, the bit normally seen on the backdrop to news reports emanating from there. Security was tight, Obama due back that day for the 50^th Anniversary of the March for Freedom speech he was to give the following day. It was then that we realised he was not home to invite us in for morning tea so we didn't stay as long as we'd hoped!

 

Actually it is difficult to visit the White House, even for American Citizens and even when they do "you only get to visit about 4 rooms" we were reliably informed, but there is a small informative White House Visitor Centre set up in the Presidential Park on the south side of the Treasury Building. Although the building isn't as impressive as our own Buckingham Palace in size, stature or gardens (we visited very recently), it still boasts 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms and 6 levels in the Residence and the grounds cover just over 18 acres.

 

After passing the South lawn of the White House with a couple more obligatory photos we moved onto the Lincoln Memorial. I remember seeing this in the movie "In the Line of Fire" starring Clint Eastwood. It is an impressive memorial reflecting the design of an ancient Greek temple but with the entrance of the long side. A statue of Lincoln sits facing the Mall. From the memorial you can see right up the Mall over the Reflecting Pool and WWII Memorial to the Washington Monument. From there are the Smithsonian Museums and beyond them, Capitol Hill. Preparations were being made for the 50^th Anniversary Freedom March. It was here 50 years ago that Martin Luther King made the famous "I have a dream" speech.

 

We walked up the Mall past the Reflecting Pool to the WWII Memorial that honours the 16 million Americans who served in the war and the millions who supported the war effort at home. Gold stars revere the 405,000 or so Americans who died in the war. This was only opened surprisingly recently in 2004. The Washington Monument was closed for repairs following earthquake damage in 2011. It is the tallest structure in the city and reputedly the best place to get views over DC. We had to settle for the 2^nd best – the tower of the Old Post Office Building. This we did after sampling a "Chicken Dog" as opposed to a Hot Dog. Didn't really taste of chicken or sausage so I dread to think what was actually in it! I'd probably go for guinea pig again before one of those if ever given the option in future!

 

From the Post Office Tower there are good views down Pennsylvania Avenue towards Capitol Hill including some government and legislative buildings such as the Edgar Hoover FBI Building. It was at Capitol Hill that we finished our day's activities before meeting up with an Aberystywth Uni mate who had moved over here (Ben for those Aber people reading this).

 

The following day was a little quieter. We started with the Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Complex. After a not so healthy lunch (McDonald's has the monopoly at that museum) we encountered Barack Obama, though it would be fairer to say we heard him more than we saw him, as we went down to the gathering for the 50^th anniversary freedom march speech - it was heaving. Then it was back to the Smithsonian for a few hours looking round the Natural History Museum – a huge, impressive museum that ideally warrants a full day to do it justice. On display in the Rotunda is an Angolan African Bush Elephant, apparently the largest of its kind on display in the world. At around 13 feet from the forefoot to the top of its shoulder, it is imposingly high! We finished the day having dinner (bison burger) with another DC acquaintance (for those other than family reading this - Mum & Dad had offered a homestay to Elizabeth when she visited our school with other Americans on a People-to-People programme way back in 1986 and continued to offer homestays for four years after that).

 

Our final morning in DC involved a visit to the National Museum of American History and the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, an architecturally striking building worth the look inside.

 

And so eventually we made it to Seattle and then onto Bellingham, that is where I am finishing this mail from. Stan and Kay have a lovely house overlooking a bay that faces out onto the San Juan Islands and the northern Pacific, but this part of the adventure must wait until the next instalment.

 

So until then,

 

Happy globetrotting

 

Kath & Andy
---------------------------------------------------------
"Don't ask what the world needs - ask what makes you come alive and then go & do that.

Because what the world needs is people who have come alive" Howard Martin
---------------------------------------------------------

Unleash the passion, indulge the dream
www.passion4travel.co.uk

---------------------------------------------------------
If you have received this email in error, no longer wish to receive these emails, or would prefer to read the blog, please email me. I will not be offended. Absence of such emails presupposes that you still wish me to send them.

I will never pass your details onto unrelated third-parties.

To stop my emails being seen as spam, please add me to your email account's address book.

If I've missed anyone who would like to read this, feel free to forward it on.