July 4th In Bellingham

         July 4th proved out to be a great day.   Activity and weather wise. 

    I show the above pictures because the clouds are very kool, at least I think so.  And to prove how sunny it was this day.   I am skipping a few exploring posts, for now to tell about the fourth before it becomes to late in the month.  


   With all the talk of banning personal fireworks around town, we thought it might be a more boring holiday.   But with three kids, lots of fireworks, and a nervous dog, it was far from boring.  Max was fine when he was with us, he just wanted to attack everything we blew up to protect us of course.  

     I was out early looking for a good spot to watch the towns firework show.  And quickly decided Boulevard Park was not it.   When I drove through the parking lot about 11 A.M. the park was already full and people were starting to set up tents.  This park fills up fast.  And if you can sneak your way up the rail road tracks towards Bellingham, fewer people are around.  We decided to BBQ at home.  And than took off for the festivities at Squalicum Park in the afternoon.  Since most events in this town are packed and full of things to do, I was kind of surprised at how few booths and activities were at the park.   Not that it isn't a beautiful park to enjoy any time of year.  

    I have a post already on this sight about roaming around the park.   And another great one in the works.   We had some time to roam around the paths and enjoy the sun. 

    The rocks are always fun to chill on or explore.   Just stay off the jetty's.  Especially in bad weather. 

      Many kites were in the air to be enjoyed by the fliers and those watching.   The currents right off the bay allow for some great kite flying!   The above kite took two people to put it back in it's box.

   This man had a neat kite.   He said that he has flown kites all around this great country, and this park is his favorite place to fly kites, by far!

                                                          Further down the trail.  

You can just see the old city hall in the background.  

Many people packed the park.   While bands played.  And an art show was held inside this main building.   Some vendor tents wrapped around the park.  

                                                                    Coloring time!

    Don't forget to visit "Willy"  down by the whale watching boats and restaurants. 

                  Many people watch the fireworks from this park also.  To many people.  So we moved on.  Ending up down by the Bellingham Cruise Terminal.   As darkness rolled in, people shot off there own fireworks.   And soon the empty fields looked like a battle field.   Smoke of all colors, dancing with the slight wind.  

    It was still to early to enjoy the light show, so I roamed with Max and got some pictures.  

Than we joined in to blow up some stuff!

Through the night, I learned again, how hard it is to take pictures of fireworks.  

I have a lot to learn on this.  

And gave up, to enjoy the show.

     Blowing up things is great fun!    It almost looks like her hair is on smoking in this picture.  

   This blurry van--we managed to annoy the passengers.   People were shooting fireworks all around us.  And he was worried that our kids were 30 feet behind his van.  And told us so.  We reminded him that we parked there first and than they pulled up, we were far from there van, and what the date of the year was.   After awhile he and his wife decided it was safer to leave.   

From our view spot that night.

We did learn that it is much better to be in one of the parks.  Although packed, there is a lot of effect being just under the light show.  With the intense lights and noise.  It diminished a lot from our view point.   And many of the local explosions were kooler than the actual show.   At least from where we were sitting.  

Again By The Bay --Quickie Post

             **"It's amazing how calming a good cigar down by the bay can be."**


    I have greatly been slackin' on posts lately.   So today---with time to kill--- I double post.  I am leaving this great state in two weeks.  So trying to enjoy all the beauty the area has to offer  just in case I never return here.  Especially when it is sunny outside.   The summers here rock, filled with sun and activities.  But this time of year, people stare at the sky, squinting, wandering what that bright light in the sky is.   At the moment I am living less than a mile from the bay.  And find my way by the water near sunset, trying to get that perfect set of pictures.  Here are my latest attempts.  
    

 Again the last few days I ended up near the awesome bay.  

This seagull does not have a screwed up beak, he found a clam.   They fly above you with there prizes and drop them on the rocks so they can eat the insides.  Watch your head!

Patrick the starfish from Spongebob?   I worked with a co-worker at Wally World that could do the Spongebob laugh perfectly.  He would broadcast it over the PA all the time.  Anything is instantly more amusing of the speaker system.  

Of course

he is also the same worker that would answer the work phone, yell thanks for calling Home Depot and hang up.   Or something even more random.

Leaving Fairhaven into Bellingham on the trails.

Hard to see in the picture, but there is a bird on each of these poles--chillin.

At the Bellingham terminals keep going left.   This is under the RR bridge.   All in more detail in past posts.  Mainly just sharing new sights. 

The runoff water behind the bridge reflections.

This is a bad picture, but a maze made out of rocks.  Many rocks.  It is large enough you could wander through it on foot.  

The Zodiac is in port by the Bellingham terminal.  This day they were setting up the sails and such.

My new friend  after the hike. 

Happy trails and much sunshine to all --wherever you find yourself wandering. 

Dirty Dan Harris Days!

   Last Saturday we ventured just down the road to attend the Dirty Dan Festival in beautiful Fairhaven, Washington.  We saw a lot of shoppers in the town, but no real activities.  At first I was ready to call this a very lame event, but soon found out that the event started on Sunday, this year----Whoops!  Above is Dan's statue, forever keeping watch of the Village Green of his town.  Also a great place to snap a picture of him and yourself enjoying the view.   The Green is surrounded by great shops and partly covered.  It is usually the towns event hub.  The far wall doubles as an outdoor movie wall.   And the town plays family movies all summer starting in June.  I will report about these complete with a list of movies next month.  

   Sunday we tried again.   And enjoyed another sun filled day.  It has been a great trend in the past few weeks were we have OK weeks capped off with awesome sun filled weekends.    

  This festival celebrates the founder of Fairhaven.  And has been going on for six thousand years.                  
Minus about six thousand years, so for years now.  Fair warning--- for $20 bucks you can sample more clam chowder than you can imagine.  Clam chowder has a VERY distinct smell and we chose to stay away from this section of the festival.   At my last job, we had clam chowder soup on special every Friday.  When a new worker asked what the soup of the day was, I would take off the lid, and stand back.  The smell would instantly remind the new worker what the soup was.  All of this fun was in Wyoming, a land locked state -were fresh seafood is not an option.   The seafood tents are also near the beer garden.
   And now a little bit of history:
       Daniel Jefferson Harris was born on February 16, 1833 in New York.   He was a rebel, better to be left alone.  He was involved in at least four noted large legal scrapes.  Each time he was arrested, but bailed out by friends so never served any real jail time.    So the Dirty part was soon added to his name.   He was also a hard worker and great business man.  Around 1868 he acquired nearly 200 acres of land in what is now Fairhaven.  Much of this land was along this water front.  He quickly sold off the land that is now the town.   And later made a small fortune selling off the water front.   He was married for a year, before problems arose.  His wife and him separated, but made amends and stayed with each other.  Dan died in 1890 leaving an estate of about $180,000.    
By 1896, when Washington portions of Dan's estate was finally settled, Fairhaven property values had hugely dropped and his 5 heirs received only $33.93 apiece. 


    OK   wake up time!   Our daughter and I roamed down Harris street and hit incline down to the bay about time for the piano races to start.  

                   At the bottom of this hill are the 3 pianos to be pushed up the hill.

    The street is blocked off for the race and than the large crowd cheers on the runners.

  The Bellingham Terminal was our first stop of the day.  Many ships were in port to view and board. Filled with the crews who could answer any questions.  These boats are amazingly preserved and works of art even before the sails are lifted.   Several of them also had a sailing race later in the day. 

 Many vendors surrounded the terminal.  And bands offered more entertainment.  

 Displays and activities filled the inside of the terminal also. 

                           Replica of the Titanic to honor the 100 years since the tragedy.

                                                                We found Nemo!!


                                                         Rustic Coffee fueled stop ....

    This is in front of the depo leading people to Junction Coffee.  A great little shop that offers an awesome view with every coffee purchase!


 Back up the hill to the main festival.   All shops were open for business.  Musical groups kept everyone entertained in the Village Green were more vendors were out and benches were set up for all the guests.  

                                     A very busy face painter was one of the vendors.
  The Toy Garden also had a booth were kids could make there own toy.  Today's was some sort of water filled ball.   These were bouncing around all over the green.  Amazingly in all the time we spent at the festival, I saw no one get hit by the balls.  Later we roamed around the near toy store.  It is a great store with amazingly helpful and knowledgeable workers.  Rare in this day and age.  Off the green you can also roam the huge multi level book store.  Village Books is a great place to spend your time. With every type of book imaginable.  This store even has a machine that will print out the book you wrote!  Great staff and great prices also welcome you every trip.  Possibly the best thing about the store, is all of the activities.  They have free lectures, readings, open mic nights, workshops etc, something going on almost every day of the week.  The 2nd best thing is the owners of the store, it defiantly does not feel like a stuffy chain book store.   Plus the upper level houses a coffee shop if your caffeine level is running a little low.  Exit the bookstore without venturing outside, into a great gift shop.  

  People in authentic costume roam around the festival.  I believe the man in white is supposed to be Dirty Dan.