One of the things we like best about living in the Seattle area is our proximity to other cities and geographic features. We’re three hours away from Portland, Vancouver, the Olympic Peninsula, and Mount Rainier. Some interesting things are even closer to home.
The obligatory tulip picture from Roozengaarde, outside Mount Vernon. Taken during the 2013 Tulip Festival.
Last weekend we went up to the Skagit Valley, just an hour north of us. The Tulip Festival was in full swing, but we opted to go elsewhere. We had lunch in Edison, just north of the tulip fields. The most famous native of Edison was the broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. These days Edison is known more for crafts stores and a killer bakery. We had lunch at the Old Edison Inn, a pub at the end of the town’s main drag.
After lunch we drove up Chuckanut Drive to Fairhaven. Chuckanut Drive is one of the most scenic roads in the state, and one of the twistiest. On one side you see old-growth forests and hills, on the other side you see Samish Bay. Two seafood restaurants and the Taylor Shellfish Farms are on the drive. The latter was jumping with lots of folks roasting oysters on Weber kettle grills. (The store conveniently sells charcoal along with the seafood.)
At the north end of Chuckanut Drive is Fairhaven, a historic district in Bellingham. It boasts numerous crafts and jewelry stores, plenty of places to eat, and an excellent bookstore. We had ice cream at Acme Ice Cream. It shares the store with Rocket Doughnuts. The space theme includes old movie posters and a collection of toy ray guns. The TV was running a grade B-minus movie of an alien wearing a gorilla suit below the neck and a diving helmet with antennae above. Julian got the zabaglione, which reminded me of Ithaca’s Purity Ice Cream’s eggnog flavor. I had the fudge brownie flavor, in keeping with an earlier post. The ice cream’s texture was more gelato-esque than traditional ice cream.
On our jaunt, Julian posed an interesting question: How do towns like Bellingham support so many “non-essential” businesses like artsy crafts and jewelry stores? I see a rough parallel between Bellingham and Ithaca. Both are college towns. There’s a reason that the iconic vegetarian Moosewood Restaurant started in Ithaca rather than in neighboring Auburn or Cortland, for example. When the predominant industry is education (which is stable relative to manufacturing, for example), you will have a more diverse permanent population that can support non-essential businesses. Add in the students and their parents, and the outlook for these small businesses is even better.
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