Blaine, Washington

From Monroe, Washington we traveled north to the little border town (Canadian border) of Blaine, Washington.  Once again we chose the nearby Thousand Trails park:  TT Birch Bay.  Unfortunately, a Ranger did not greet us upon our arrival as he/she was out doing something else.  When we questioned the manager about the fact that no one was ever at the ranger station she replied that she couldn’t afford to have someone that did nothing all day but greet guests (too bad …  it makes for a lousy first impression).  The park itself is very adequate.  We stayed in phase II and had a very nice pull through site.  As with many older Thousand Trails parks only 30 amp. is offered to guests and members … apparently Thousand Trails doesn’t want to come into this century.  While I’m complaining, there is no delivery of the newspaper for VIP members …  We were told by the manager that the Regional manager had made not delivering the paper a rule in her northwest territory … when corporate was confronted, they had nothing meaningful to add to conversation.  ELS is apparently hell-bent to Friday to disenfranchise all earlier memberships and ignore their obligations to deliver on the parts of the contract they find onerous, expensive, or inconvenient.

All this being said, there is a lot to do in this area and we had a very nice stay.  We would give phase II at TT Birch Bay a 7 on the Moore 1-10 scale (points off for no newspaper, no 50 amp., and no ranger at the gate for security).  In the final analysis, however, we would stay at this park again.

There is a lot to do in this area.  We spent time at Birch Bay State Park and watched the birds and the ocean.  It was very relaxing.  This area used to be a real hotbed of shell fishing, however, recent health concerns have stopped all shell fishing here (see pics.)

Lynda strolls along the shoreline

A bird watches us watching it.

All the shell fish from this region is toxic.

The town of Blaine has a lot to offer as well.  We ate at Paso Del Norte Mexican restaurant (good food but not very spicy for our taste …  seems to be a regional affinity), Little Red Caboose Café (very good coffee and light fare overlooking the marina), and Chada Thai (average Thai food … again not enough spice for our taste … but a popular place with the locals).

Marina at Blaine

Little Red Caboose Cafe

While in Blaine park at the Peace Park State Park and walk across the border taking in the International Peace Park gardens and arch.

Art in the Park

The Peace Arch

Inside the Peace Arch

Peace arch park is supported by BC & WA

The flowers are spectacular

House used for weddings and receptions in middle of park

Beautiful flowers!

One of the wonderful things we saw in Blaine was this cloud formation off to the West and hiding Mount Baker…  really spectacular.

Clouds over Mount Baker

Clouds over Mount Baker

We drove over to the second least visited National Park in America:  North Cascades National Park.  This park has a huge physical footprint, but a very narrow and limited access point into the park.  Only a very small fraction of the park can be seen, yet it has more glaciers than any park in the lower 48 states.  It’s too bad more road access is not provided into the park … It could easily be one of the most popular parks if folk could actually get into the park to see it.  On our way home we stopped at Mondo Restaurant in Marblemount, WA (a decent burger but lousy fried rice … probably won’t repeat on either the park or the restaurant).

Glaciers in the distance

Glaciers in the distance

Lynda at the Park Entrance

Green River from Glacial Runoff

Don't you wish you were having this much fun!!??

Until Next Time ... Keep Doing What You Love!!