Fairhaven, Washington

On our way down to Seattle we stopped for a coffee in Fairhaven, the southernmost suburb of Bellingham. It's a delightful place, with lovely old architecture that is very well preserved.

Trader Joe's Opens In Bellingham!

My favourite supermarket has just opened a store in Bellingham!!! You have no how idea, how incredibly excited I am to hear this news!!!

Drive To Seattle

I headed down to Seattle today (about 220km) in preparation for the arrival of my ex-girlfriend's son, who is flying up from Aguascalientes, Mexico. He is a superb young man and just graduated from high school with top marks. This trip is my present to him for this great achievement.

Here are some photos from my journey:

It was about a 50 minute wait at the Peace Arch border crossing.

Fairhaven is an historic neighbourhood on the south end of Bellingham. It was founded in the late 1880's as a distinct town but is now part of its larger northern neighbour.

Chuckanut drive is a short scenic highway that is accessed from Fairhaven. The views are incredible.

When I was a child my family went camping along here. I have a distinct memory of picking 4-leaf clovers from one campground along here but I have yet to confirm this as an adult.

New Low-Cost Airline For Vancouverites

Citizens of Vancouver (and Seattle) will soon have a new low-cost airline available to them. SkyBus is a brand new airline modeled after Irish discount carrier RyanAir. I just checked their website and found return flights for as low as US$60 ($50 + $10 taxes) each way. That's the good news. Here's the rest of the story:

• Flights are out of Bellingham. You can either drive down and park for $6/day, get a friend to drive you down, or take a shuttle bus.
• All flights go through Columbus, Ohio.
• The first 2 checked bags cost $5 each. Subsequent bags cost $50 each.

But still, non-business travelers, especially students, will probably make good use of the service to travel around the U.S. for much less than any other airline.

Snowy Drive to Bellingham

I had a rental car for the weekend, mostly to make deliveries for BCDD, but on Sunday my mom & I decided to continue with our shopping trip down to Bellingham. Here are some photos from our journey:

Fir Street, looking south toward 16th Avenue

Approaching the Blaine truck crossing

The parking lot at Bellis Fair

Returning via the Peace Arch crossing

All in all, the experience was incident free for us. But there were lots of people who had driven off the road. It seems that many people don't understand that you simply have to drive slower in such conditions, even if you're driving an SUV. Even more have little to no experience driving in the snow. So when something startles them - like hitting a patch of ice - they slam on the brakes, which tends to spin them around and often into the ditch.

Returning the Avis rental car was quite hilarious. I took it back to the West Broadway location where I had picked it up. I knew they'd be closed but was just going to drop the keys through the mailbox like I had done in times past. Well this time round the mailbox was welded shut! So I found a payphone and call their 800 number. They explained that I could wait until the next morning or take it to their downtown location. I opted for the latter.

Taking the Cambie Bridge downtown, the traffic was very light. I pulled into the parking lot underneath of the Hotel Vancouver and down to level B7, as instructed by the signs. I then took the elevator back up to ground level to return the keys. There was no one there! Nor was there a drop-off box! So I went into the hotel and called them again. They assured me there was a box somewhere, but they weren't sure where. Another elevator ride back down to B7 and I found the box, though it was nowhere near I had left the car.


The walk home was peaceful and pleasant. I had brought my portable radio along and listened to the coverage on CKNW. People were calling in from all over the Lower Mainland reporting the storm from their perspective. Many people had lost power. I felt very fortunate that I had not been inconvenienced at all by the storm.