21-31AUG10 - Birch Bay, WA

Saturday, 21AUG, we departed the Evergreen State Fairgrounds enroute Birch Bay State Park, with an overnight stop at Angel of the Winds. Sunday morning our intention was to drive Chuckanut Drive (aka State Highway 11) originally part of the Pacific Highway, supposedly one of the most scenic drives in USA. Unfortunately the road was “temporarily” closed to vehicles over 9 tons, so we had to make a u-turn & head back to I-5 North. As is the case with most State Parks in Washington, Birch Bay is not easiest for modern RVs to navigate. After a couple of attempts we finally got into our campsite, when a Park Ranger asks us to temporarily move the RV for maintenance on our campsite. After moving & three more attempts at parking we finally set up camp, & then it was off to the beach for a beautiful sunset.

http://www.parks.wa.gov/parks/?selectedpark=Birch%20Bay

Monday morning Dan now being “on a mission”, decided to drive Chuckanut Drive in the Toad. We started at the north end in the small town of Fairhaven (founded in 1853 by Dirty Dan Harris). We discovered a nice scenic town, with many restored buildings & decided to have an early lunch al fresco before commencing our drive. The town was counting on the Great Northern RR terminating in Fairhaven, & the town commenced a building boom in the 1890s in anticipation. At the last minute, the RR went to Seattle & the Fairhaven building boom crashed.

Turns out that Chuckanut Drive is a beautiful & great drive; but we are definitely glad we didn’t do it in the RV. Late that afternoon Dan’s cousin Jennifer & husband, Mike Hayes, arrived & we began making plans to catch massive amounts of crabs. As shown in the two below BLOG entries, Mike & Jennifer are the two key players in what is turning into an annual event for us. Sadly the area is experiencing “red tide” & there will be no clamming or gathering of oysters this year.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2009/08/19-22aug09-birch-bay-wa.html

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2008/09/27-30aug08-birch-bay-wa.html

Tuesday Dan BBQ’d some pork country ribs & beef country ribs, while Mike & his friend Scott got Mike’s boat & crab gear ready for the next day. Later in the day Mike decided to teach his daughter, Keely, how to play cribbage. To insure an even playing field, Dan decided to coach Keely. In spite of his assistance, Keely managed to win her first cribbage game.

Wednesday morning, 25AUG, we launched our boat & finally get to set our two “new” crab pots. That afternoon we checked our pots & found five keepers. Even though the water was very calm, we have come to realization that our boat & motor are not the best combination for crabbing.

Thursday morning we decided not to set pots & headed into Bellingham, WA, to do some shopping. That afternoon we set our pots & almost swamped the boat; we will definitely be looking into a different arrangement if we continue to set our own pots. Later that day Dan had to help a friend of Mike’s, Jim Holmer, with his boat in some very rough water. After Dan dried off, we were treated to some great seafood clam chowder cooked by Mike & fresh blackberry cobbler for dinner.

Friday morning Dan headed out with Holmer & they got 23 crabs! That evening Mike & Jennifer boiled the last three days crab catch along with corn, potatoes, onions & mushrooms (everyone’s favorite). As usual Mike flavored his boil with good old Zataran’s Cajun spices. Over the last two days many of Mike’s relatives & friends had also set up camp in the State Park & it was one big crowd enjoying some excellent crab boil!

Saturday morning Dan once again headed out with Holmer & discovered someone stole our crabs; but we still got 14 in Holmer’s pots. In the afternoon we visited the Semiahmoo County Park & the A.P.A. Museum. The Museum is dedicated to the Alaskan Packers Association (A.P.A.) which was formed in 1893 to control the price of canned Alaskan salmon (can you say OPEC). The APA was extremely politically powerful until sometime after WWI, & eventually disappeared in 1982. It was a small, but fascinating museum. Two interesting bits of trivia we learned was that the APA was the largest “tall ship” fleet in the world (aka the Star Fleet) in the early 1900s; & responsible for the success of the Iron Butcher (aka the definitely politically incorrect - Iron Chink, & supposedly the patent name!).

http://www.draytonharbormaritime.org/

http://stories.washingtonhistory.org/leschi/teaching/pdfs/sts-ironchink.pdf

From there we drove completely around the bay over to Blaine, WA, to check out the town & the Peace Arch State Park. If you stay on the interstate (ie I-5) you will definitely know before you reach the Canada/USA border; but in Blaine you can easily walk into Canada without even knowing it, even in this post 11SEP world. Anyway, the Peace Arch is located on the border; one half is a British Columbia Provincial Park & the other half is a Washington State Park. For some reason Corrie refused to step across into the Canada side, maybe because she is a known fish smuggler & might not get back into the USA (see our BLOG of http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2007/08/15-aug07-minot-nd-busted-really.html for complete details of her criminal past). Anyway, the Peace Arch is centered in a beautiful International Park (PS - the Canadian side is much prettier than the USA side) & you can freely wonder from country to country as you watch the traffic back-ups of those in cars waiting to cross the border.

Trivia – what two countries have a treaty that says no forts & no troops on their border?

http://www.peacearchpark.org/index.htm

http://www.parks.wa.gov/parks/?selectedpark=Peace%20Arch

http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/parkpgs/peace_arch/

From the Peace Arch it was back to Birch Bay State Park for a last gathering of everyone around a fire on the beach to watch the sunset. While we sat around the fire waiting for the sunset we were treated to live music from half of a group called the Alley Kattz. The Kattz were started by “Kitty” Miller & “Cool Katt” Edwards, friends of Mike & Jennifer’s. So after a week of beautiful weather, great company (family & friends) & more fresh crab than eatable; we were treated to live music, great food & another fantastic sunset on the beach. As the cliché goes – it doesn’t get any better than this!!!

http://www.alleykattz.com/

After a great time with family & friends, along with great weather, it was back to Angel of the Winds Casino for a couple of days while we tried to resolve a “water issue” on our property. As we have discussed previously in our BLOG we have an Arsenic level that is perfectly acceptable throughout the rest of WA state (& the USA) but is not in our county. So at the additional cost of $1200 (not including installation) we have had a treatment system designed to hopefully address this none issue.