Fairhaven

We awoke in the woods, in rain and fog. Washington never disappoints…

We went for a walk to find the “beach” and to see the water…

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It was a nice walk and the rain was light and intermittent. The beach was a little rocky:

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On the other hand, it was nice to get back into my Rainbows…

The water was, as usual, very nice:

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2017-09-25 Washington 01 Larrabee State Park 01

After our walk we drove into Fairhaven, then my brother and I drove back down Chuckanut Drive to an Oyster Farm. We picked up three dozen oysters to have with dinner. This farm has been here for over 120 years, and they actually own over 4,000 acres of seabed, all under this water:

2017-09-25 Washington 03 Oyster Farm

Later in the day we strolled the streets of downtown Fairhaven, and the adjacent waterfront:

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2017-09-25 Washington 02 Fairhaven 02

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We saw this little marker, telling of the merger between Bellingham and Fairhaven many years ago:

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This evening we enjoyed a lovely dinner and the views from Jim and Pam’s deck:

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And an enjoyable time was had by all…

We left early and headed towards the west. Our destination today is Bellingham, WA, home of my brother Jim and his wife, Pam. There is no nice direct way to get from Grand Coulee to Bellingham, so we are taking the scenic route through the “Washington Alps”.

The first several miles of our travels the landscape was very similar to what we saw in Eastern Washington yesterday. One exception were the “haystack rocks” scattered about the landscape. These rocks were carried along with the glaciers as they receded and were dropped randomly across the countryside.

2017-09-24 Washington 01 Haystack Rock

Soon the landscape was taken over by apple trees; it appears to be time for harvest:

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2017-09-24 Washington 03 Apples

We passed by beautiful Lake Pateros…

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At about 10:00 am we rolled into the western-looking town of Winthrop. It has old west storefronts, wood plank sidewalks, and lots of trinket shops. After a stroll up and down the street we decided to have a late breakfast/early lunch at Three Fingered Jacks Saloon and Cafe:

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We had surprisingly good food!

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We walked around the town and found this bridge over a nice little river:

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And some beautiful fall colors:

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We continued into the “Washington Alps”, beautiful, tall, snow-capped mountains, through the towns of Twisp and Mazama. We went through Washington Pass at 5,453′ and Rainy Pass at 4,862′. It was all quite scenic!

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We soon arrived at an overlook at Diablo Lake:

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We finally came out of the mountains and drove through Rockport, Concrete, and Sedro Woolley, eventually reaching the 5 and arriving at Larrabee State Park.

We maneuvered through the trees and into a nice, long, but very sloping and non-level site. However, we were able to get set up quickly.

2017-09-24 Washington 10 Larrabee State Park