Cats and Trails and Garden Tales

Call me sentimental. But last week’s road trip to Bellingham was a walk back in time.

It started when we headed north from Seattle,  passing through the daffodils of the beautiful Skagit Valley. (Tulips are up next in the Valley and that needs another trip but I digress.)

From the daffodils we stopped in La Conner for lunch and then continued to our destination, Bellingham,

via the scenic route,  Chuckanut Drive, which winds for 30 miles or so along the coast next to the Salish Sea,

where you’ll find oysters for sale along the way and oyster beds in the beaches below. No I don’t eat them.

You’ll also be treated to views of the San Juan Islands  – reachable only by boat or plane so that also needs another trip.

Chuckanut Drive led us to Fairhaven, a historic district in Bellingham that I frequented during my college days – a short walk from one of the many places I lived — and where we spent the next two nights at the delightful Fairhaven Village Inn.

I love Fairhaven – a compact section of old Bellingham with quaint shops and restaurants –

and Village Books, my favorite bookstore where you can browse three floors of new and used books,  pick up quirky gifts and have a bowl of African Peanut soup at the adjoining Colophon Café.

You can walk anywhere for dinner and when you head back to your hotel you might even catch a sunset over Bellingham Bay, like we did. 🙂

For more of the bay you can take the South Bay Trail for a refreshing walk along the waterfront, and maybe stop by Woods Coffee.

Bob did just that the next morning while I slept in.  I was saving all my steps for the walk on campus – Western Washington University – where I spent most of my college years during the last century.   The campus is intimate, with woods on one side and views of the bay on the other.  Red Square is still the centerpiece surrounded with buildings like Miller Hall where I enjoyed many of my liberal arts classes.

Best of all the campus is full of sculptures and artwork like the Stairs to Nowhere, which I did not climb

and the Log Ramps which I did.

There was the steel wall sculpture , Wright’s Triangle, that we walked through, and where you can see Sehome Hill behind,

and the brilliant red one, For Handel,  high above the Bay.

I remembered them all.

And there was new artwork as well, including these little fellows, hard at work,

and this one not.

It was a wonderful walk  from one end of the campus to the other and when it was over we were ready to head downtown for lunch and more adventures.

But I will save that for another time.

Thanks for coming along.

Shared with Jo’s Monday Walks.

~ Susanne