Within an hours drive.

A 70 y.o. friend is trying to decide weather or not to accompany his friend on a trip out there.
( From Eastern Iowa)

He's never seen the ocean.

Your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks for any attention you choose to give this.

If the weather is good Chuckanut Drive can be a nice drive.

Here you go. https://www.bellingham.org/top...-to-do-in-bellingham

Bellingham is about a hour north of me.

The actual ocean is more than an hour away.


When would the trip be?

As mentioned, Chuckanut is nice. Also Mt. Baker area, possible killer whale cruise, Indian casino, etc.

Bird watching, pretty cool abandoned mental hospital nearby.

Lots to do and see.

Years ago, I had some equipment fabricated there so I made several business trips. I distinctly remember 4 things about my trips:

Eating clam chowder at Anthony's

There were quite a few good microbreweries

There was a spot up on the bluff with a fantastic view of Bellingham Bay. Even saw some whale once.

Flying out of the airport was awful if you arrived after a bus. Canadians saved money by taking buses across the border and flying out of Bellingham's airport. At security, every single one had to be individually told (i.e. oblivious to both signs and instructions to person in front of them) to take liquids out of bags, take off shoes, take off belt, etc.

Drive to Anecortes, maybe take the ferry to Friday Harbor?

Take a ferry over to Victoria. Tour the Butchart Gardens. Check to see what they do in what season. We've never done it but high tea at the Empress Hotel is interesting. Everything described above is expensive so go prepared.

It's a bit of a drive but Leavenworth is based on a German town that's pretty cool. And, Poulsbo is based on Scandinavia. Also, the Underwater Naval Museum in Keyport is very interesting. It is right next door to NAVSEA so if you pull up to a guard shack and two armed Marines you went too far.

Don't know if they still do this but we toured the Bremerton boneyard by boat one year. Pretty cool if you want to get up close and personal with some retired Navy ships. The subs look strange because the cut the nuclear sections out and send them to a repository. They weld the boats back together and float them there. They look short and stubby. And, you can tour the Turner Joy DD 951 in Bremerton too.

Just looked it up. All of what I've described is more than an hour away. Well, file it away if you every get close again.

My sister lives there and I've done everything mentioned in this thread so far. I'm not as thrilled with B'ham and most seem to be and find Anacortes better. They have such a killer old school hardware store there too, must see. Actually, B'ham has a pretty good one too.


Vancouver, BC might be too much of a drive due to border crossing BS, but, if you're into amazing authentic Chinese food, that's worth the drive. BTW, the Costco in B'ham is always, always totally overrun by Canadians coming down for cheaper everything. Total madhouse there every minute they're open.

Thanks much,
I will forward this.

Has anyone visited the electrical museum?

They have not nailed down a travel date at this time.

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