A cousin’s wedding in Lynden, WA area later this summer will take us to the northwest corner of the state. We’ve booked one night at the Worldmark Birch Bay for our accomodations while there.
A quick online search for things to see and do in the Birch Bay area brought me to their Chamber of Commerce website and revealed some options for us, but we’ll have to be pretty selective due to the limited amount of time we will be there and the time occupied by our primary reason for being there in the first place.
Blaine, WA is nearby and I wouldn’t mind stopping in to see the Peace Arch State Park. The only problem is that the park is situated between the US and Canadian border stations. It seems that I would need my passport updated in order to enter the park. Time is too short to get that taken care of before the trip, so I’ll just have to enjoy the photos that others have taken.
Another option would be to stop by the Blaine Marine Park where we could take a ride on the Plover Foot Ferry. Ok, probably not, due to our time constraints, but we may take part of the 2 mile waterfront walk around to the marina and enjoy a little bird watching and the views of the San Juan Islands, or looking the other direction, a view of Mt Baker.
Birch Bay has a public market open on weekends through the summer. There is something about a public market that is intriguing to me. It might be the entrepreneurship represented by each of the vendors. I usually end up spending most of my time quizzing the vendors about their businesses. Anyway, it usually don’t cost anything to walk through the market to look around.
Because I enjoy perusing a museum, the Drayton Harbor Maritime Museum might be a place to stop in for a look-see. It would take us out onto the Semiahmoo Spit and it houses a restored sailing boat among their collection. I think access to the museum requires a ride on the Plover Foot Ferry, so again, time may be a constraint to visiting the museum on this trip.
If we had kids with us, I’m sure they would want to go to the Birch Bay Waterslides water park. Besides the Northwest Washington Fair, the water park is probably Birch Bay’s premier tourist attraction and draws over 60,000 paid guests each year.
Due to the time element, I may bypass all the local sight-seeing this trip and just leave early the next morning and make the return home over the North Cascades Highway. It is one of the most beautiful mountain passes I’ve ever experienced, but it’s been awhile since I’ve taken that route.
