Bellingham

Still in the Bellingham area doing plenty of exploring and only a little bit of touristy stuff. My lame excuse for not updating the blog is a nasty little cut on my finger tip when I was not 'smartly' slicing some dense bread - no major trauma! Healing up fine, but will leave a scar - I hate when I do that. Stuck close to our friends' place until mid-week, then made a venture to North Cascades National Park - some nice hiking/sightseeing there, plus starting to get ready for my big race in September with some challenging runs and hikes and bikes!  We're currently deliberating over the next direction we will be heading, and I think we'll stay north the upcoming week and make our way back east a little to visit more friends! Summaries and pictures from the past week...
July 9: Blog catchup! Mountain biking Galbraith trails - mostly easier stuff since I was along, but got to watch Peter and Rudy do some crazy (to me) drops and jumps and whatnot.

Peter being awesome

Biking home, there was a driver that didn't even slow down for the a red light, and if I didn't notice how fast she was approaching the intersection - pretty sure I would have been creamed! Rudy managed to catch up to her and 'nice'ly scold her at the next stop sign - a little reminder of defensive commuting! After refueling and hanging out a few hours, I was actually motivated to do a little run, and Rudy tagged along for more checking out of Whatcom Park. Another friend from Michigan showed up, and us four guests went to get some delicious burritos at Casa Que Pasa while our hosts had their wedding rehearsal.

Burritos being awesome

July 10: My birthday AND wedding day for Peter and Julianna! I got out early for a 35k run (didn't have time or preparedness for a 35 mile run) of mostly wandering through the Galbraith trails and seeing pretty flowers - FANTASTIC!

After a quick snack and cleanup, it was time to head to the wedding. There just happened to be a gay pride parade going through our route, so some interesting navigation of Bellingham by us visitors, but we made it with time to spare! The wedding was at Zuanich Park on the water and was so small, simple, and beautiful - pretty happy for the couple!

It was cool to meet a lot of new people, including other van and outdoors enthusiasts, there was great food, and phenomenal donuts from The Donut House in Anacortes - we may have to stop by there at some point...Another wedding guest had a training kite for paragliding - Peter and Rudy each tried it out, it looked like a challenge to control, the thing probably would have carried me away!

Rudy getting the hang of it

The groom testing the limits

Wedding celebrations wrapped up late afternoon, and instigator Mark convinced us to go out to celebrate birthdays and matrimony. Peter's initial suggestion happened to be closed, so we checked out a beer garden style place: Schweinhaus. Interesting, young atmosphere, delightful beer, yummy snacks, and a very drunk guy trying to befriend us made for a memorable hour! We then went to Boundary Bay Brewery that had some good happy hour snacks, and free birthday dessert!! Banana cheesecake goes nicely with nitro Irish Stout - Yay for birthdays!

July 11: I was awake early and took a peaceful stroll through Whatcom Park - even running slowly you don't see as much as you do walking!

Twinberries - apparently not super poisonous, but mildly toxic and not too tasty - look cool though!

There are cool stumps and roots and trees all over the place!

Drew had departed and the rest of us made a nice little brunch and took a drive up scenic Chuckanut Drive. First stop of Teddy Bear Cove included lots of barnacles, crabs, a seal! geese, shells, a little scrambling on cool sandstone and conglomerate, and only one unintentional leg in the water!

I like rocks!

Little snails on seaweed

Barnacles!

At another overlook, we were able to see oyster farms with the low tide. Apparently there is seven miles of shore where oysters are harvested. Next was Samish Overlook. We lucked out with a beautiful, clear day and had great views. This is also a popular launching point for hang-gliders and paragliders and such - very exciting to watch that in-person!

The hang-glider is like 80 - keep it up!

Had Rudy and Peter chatting about the training kite again...The whole day included looking at all the different flora, including beautiful Pacific Madrone, and checking out familiar and not so familiar berries - fun stuff!

Bearberry, I think

Madrone tree

Since we skipped lunch (I guess brunch was good for it) we had an early dinner with Peter's parents at Boomers - a drive in type place in Bellingham with simple and tasty burgers, fries, and shakes. A pretty mellow evening of hanging out and chatting after that, I spent a lot of time looking up edible plants, berries and mushrooms in the area, maybe more foraging will happen in the future?

July 12: Another exploring run through Whatcom park, then Rudy and I biked to Trader Joe's for cheesecake supplies! Then there was some lazing around, made the cheesecake, then biked to Fairhaven Runners for a weekly group run that running store puts on. It was a big turnout (~30 people?) and Rudy and I kind of stuck to ourselves. The run was a casual out and back on a flat trail along the water. On the way back, one of the faster runners slowed down for us and we determined we did in fact recognize each other from when he lived in Duluth a few years ago! Anyone recognize the name Paul Behrens? Post run there was some socializing over pizza at a new brewery - Stones Throw - and Paul was full of suggestions for good places to check out - namely Highway 20, which others had mentioned too. A nice bike ride back to Peter and Julianna's, then cheesecake with blackberries - yay!

July 13: I started the day with an out and back (pretty much up and down) run through Galbraith using the backtracking function on my GPS watch - good to know for when I get lost! One of Rudy's biking buddies spending the summer in Tacoma came up and they did a bike ride through Galbraith. After Peter was done with work, we went to Chuckanut for another bike ride! The guys did a more technical ride while I took an 'easier' option - it was still essentially climbing for an hour before I had enough and made my way back down. Lots of good climbing and descending today I guess!! Finished the day with some fantastic fish tacos Julianna made, and more cheesecake!!