Friday, July 4th, 2008

 

We arrived in Bellingham at 8:00 and drove off, waving to Michael, the Chief Purser who was so nice to us.  We had misplaced some of our papers early on, and without them, it makes it difficult to get off and back on the boat.  He always joked w/us and we really enjoyed his humor and kindness.

 

Once off the boat, we drove around and found an IHOP and had breakfast.  This was a real treat after several “microwave days”.  I (tim) even had coffee.  YUM!!

 

We drove around awhile, checking out the town.  It was a cloudy day, but the town was very colorful with lots of flowers.  It is a beautiful city, with many different parts that add to it’s charm.  There is the port section of the city, an old part of the city called Fairhaven that would comparable to our Potwin section of town, mountains, and even an area just outside of town that is farmland, just as flat and productive as our river bottoms.

 

After driving around a bit, we discovered we would not be able to find any campsites since it is a holiday, so we did what any creative camper w/do…we found a Walmart and  set up camp!  We were not alone; it was like a little gypsy city, with 13 other units set up.  Walmart allows campers to stay in their parking lots, which is good for everyone.

We went for a hike in the afternoon and looked at a fish hatchery.  Then we took a drive out on Old Fairhaven Highway (Hiway 11) which was very scenic, overlooking the bay, then out onto farmlands.  On the map it showed we would only go 10 miles out of town, but in reality we ended up 25 miles outside of town…kind of a “twilight zone” moment.

 

We killed some time later in the afternoon by stopping at a mall, then a Barnes and Noble before heading to the harbor to watch a fireworks display.  We had a supper of  peanut butter sandwiches and chips then took our blankets and waited for the show.  We  got a good spot and waited…and waited…it finally began at 10:30 and while it was pretty cool, it didn’t compare to the fireworks show our friend Marty F. puts on every 4^th of July in Topeka.