Vacationing as a Couple

Sunset view from the hotel terrace.

J and I had a milestone event this past week. We took a short vacation without the boys. They weren't interested in going on a vacation this summer. That made me sad initially but I decided this was an opportunity for them to learn and for J and I to enjoy time alone. We realized they were responsible enough to be alone for two nights.  I REALLY wanted a vacation this summer, even a short one! I love nice hotels and I love not cooking for a few days. The boys had leftovers the first night and A cooked the second night. I typically only cook the evening meals. 

Before we left I asked for some recommendations from friends for places to see and places to eat. Three of the four were hits. One was a miss. We left on Wednesday morning. We drove along Chuckanut Drive, which is the slower, more scenic road from Burlington (just north of Mt. Vernon) to Bellingham.

We hoped to have lunch in the town of Bow, but the café that looked very inviting was closed on Wednesdays.

We stopped at Samish Bay Cheese where J bought some specialty cheese. I said hello to the cows.

We also stopped at Bow Hill blueberries. We bought some blueberry juice which is very yummy but also expensive. Not for drinking quickly.

We had lunch at Skylarks Hidden Café in Fairhaven (the old town part of Bellingham). This is a very popular spot. We put our names down and had to wait about 20 minutes. We wandered around Fairhaven for a while and found this store named after me!

actually it is called Sweet Bellingham

The food at Skylarks was delicious. I had a chicken salad and J had fish and chips. We ate outside on the sidewalk.

On a friend's recommendation we went to Henderson Books. A huge used bookstore. I wish I had taken a photo of books of the super high shelves. It is the largest used bookstore I have seen, except Powell's in Portland. 

We had supper at Bellingham Cider. We ate inside because the sun was really beating down outside. Unfortunately, there was no A/C inside so we weren't very comfortable. I had kale caesar salad.

In the evening we read books on terrace and took the sunset photos.

We stayed at the Hotel Bellwether. We stumbled upon it last summer (see photos here) and J really wanted to come back and stay there. It is a boutique hotel, which means that it isn't a chain, such as a Marriott or Holiday Inn.

The view from the path by the hotel is amazing.

Our room was quite large and included a large soaking tub (similar to the ones at Oak Bay Hotel). It had a small balcony with a view of Mt. Baker. You pay more to have a view of the water but I was quite content with our room.

On Thursday we had breakfast at Old Town Café. Very yummy. I had a breakfast sandwich. J had an omelet.

The main activity for the morning was hiking to the Sehome Observation Tower on the campus of Western Washington University. It was a 25 minute hike uphill. We didn't see many people on the trail.

There is a tunnel on one of the main trails but it was closed.

The Sehome Tower (pronounced sea home) is quite the impressive structure.

View of Mt. Baker

Me at the top of the tower

We could see our hotel in the distance.

a very zoomed in photo

Next we went to Boulevard Park on the water 

and grabbed coffee from Woods Coffee. Our lunch was simple take out from Trader Joe's which we ate back at our hotel. In the afternoon, J waited while I explored a quilt store - Two Thimbles. A well supplied store. Next I explored Penny Lane antique store.

We had dinner at Colophone Cafe. The food was disappointing. Rather dull. My Caesar salad's dressing was not creamy but was mainly vinegar. We did enjoy eating outside and watching some swing dance couples practicing in the outdoor square nearby, called Fairhaven Village Green. 

There was a BBQ and concert on the hotel's terrace that night. We thought it might be fun to go to it but there was a 15 dollar entry fee and the food wasn't included in that fee. We decided to skip it. 

On Friday morning we grabbed a quick breakfast from Starbucks/McDonalds.

The hotel had bikes (labelled with the hotel name) near the front door and we asked about them. There are free for guests to use so we decided to try them out. I haven't been on a bike for probably 20 years. I felt pretty shaky and didn't want to do any sharp turns. Pedaling was no problem, just feeling stable. We biked on the path that went near the hotel. Thankfully there weren't many people on the path to have to navigate around. 

We checked out of our hotel and drove south on Highway 11/Chuckanut Drive towards Larrabee State park.

It was so quiet here. We only saw about 6 other people. 

We had lunch in the town of Bow at Farm to Market Bakery. J tried posole stew (Mexican pork stew) and liked it. I had a turkey sandwich. There is a garden surrounding the building and we ate outside. We brought some baked goods home for the boys to enjoy.

The last "vacationy" thing we did was stop for Dutch Brothers coffee (iced) in Marysville. 

Random observations about our getaway.

The Bellingham restaurants don't put ice in the water they give you. We had to ask for it every time. We'll have to ask our friend who grew up there to help us understand that one. 

J and I had a good time focusing on each other. We tried to NOT talk about the two Vs: virus and vaccine.

The only place in Bellingham that made me wear a mask was the quilt store. 

Everything within Bellingham is a 10 minute drive away. Quite nice. 

Lots of places were closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. This was surprising to me. I thought Monday and Tuesday would be closed days. Wednesday seemed to be safer but maybe places can't find enough staff?

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Heather Lake Hike

I convinced the family to go on a weekday hike on Thursday July 15th. Hikes around here are pretty popular and Saturday is terrible for getting parking, as well as Sunday afternoons. I convinced J to take a day off to do a weekday hike. None of us had ever been to Heather Lake before. The drive is about an hour from our house. It is close to Granite Falls. We got a much later start than I was hoping. We left home at about 10:30 am.

The road off the main highway to the parking lot at the trailhead was quite an adventure. We'd been warned that the gravel road was full of huge holes. They weren't kidding! We took the Jeep and I was happy we did. The drive along that road was amazing. C's smart watch detects when he is moving and it thought he was walking or jumping when we were driving along that road. That's how much we were bounced about!

When we reached the trailhead, a woman asked us "are you with the wedding?' That gave us something interesting to look for along the way.

The hike was very challenging. The terrain was almost exclusively rocks or tree roots. The elevation gain was 1000 feet. I was pretty tired even before we reached the top. Here is an example of the tree roots along the trail.

This is the path!

Very few sections had easy terrain like this:

The weather was cool and overcast. We didn't see many fellow hikers on the way up. It is about 2 1/2 miles from the trailhead to the lake. The lake area was really interesting. Here is A when we first arrived at the lake area.

We walked all the way around the lake. The boys climbed up this huge boulder.

I loved all the wildflowers.

This is wild astilbe. 

I have pink astilbe in my yard. There were some green plants that interested me.

This is a mystery berry. Of course, I wouldn't eat it!

We took some family photos and started on the descent. 

I put a special filter on this photo. Click on it to see it more clearly.

We saw the bride and groom on our way down. The bride was wearing a simple white satin dress. the groom was wearing a bow tie and a suite jacket. The couple was young. A very unique place for a wedding! It does eliminate any older relatives from attending.

Hiking is one of the few family activities that the boys will still agree to participate in. 

I'm pretty sore in my hips after the hike. A lot of the trail was large steps up or down. I am proud of myself for finished the hike.

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