Bellingham, WA

Thursday, October 3

It was a peaceful morning at the Goodell Campground in Newhalem, Washington. Wet and humid after raining most of the overnight. I loved the dramatic feeling of the forest outside our window with thick green moss hanging from every tree.

After Tory and Aden woke up, I got them breakfast and started in on school so we could get an early jumpstart on our day. We planned to hike the Trail of the Cedars this morning and visit the North Cascades Visitor Center so the kids could earn another Junior Ranger badge.

The forecast called for more rain so we bundled up in our rain gear, parked the RV in an over-sized parking lot in downtown Newhalem and walked to the trailhead. The town was deserted. We didn’t see another person on the sidewalk and it looked like all the business were already closed for the winter — including the North Cascades Visitor Center in Newhalem which meant no Junior Ranger badges during this visit. The kids and I were bummed, to say the least.

Trail of the Cedars was an easy 1.9 mile self-guided trail with huge old-growth trees that took off right from downtown. We loved the suspension bridge overlooking the Skagit River and talked again about the life cycle of the salmon we saw running in the river last night by our campsite.

The short loop walked us through a trail of centuries-old cedar trees. We could see the charred remains of a few trees burned in a 1922 fire and there were information signs on the trail telling us more about that. Other trees in the forest were so large in diameter that we couldn’t reach our arms around their trunks.

The trail was really pretty and peaceful, and a fun easy walk with kids.

North Cascades National Park is known for its hiking (specifically backcountry) and there were other family-friendly hikes I’d hoped to check out during our visit, but it didn’t work out this time. We were anxious to continue on toward the Pacific Coast of Washington and explore the Olympic Peninsula.

Back in the RV, we hit the road for the 1 1/2 hour drive to Bellingham, Washington. This small city is 90 minutes from Seattle, only 20 minutes south of the Canadian border, and offers beautiful views of both the ocean and the mountains. Sounds like a pretty neat place to live! Never before have I left home in a vehicle and driven all the way from the midwest to the ocean. It amazed me that we’d be sleeping by the water that night.

I’d picked up one of those free gas station travel guides titled The Cascades Loop somewhere along our trip and referred to it often as we passed through small dot-on-the-map towns in western Washington. As I read aloud a little blurb about a locally sourced restaurant called The Rhody, we passed by an intersection with a post office and a couple of restaurants. That was it! This was The Rhody! We decided to stop for lunch.

Finding a RV-friendly parking spot isn’t always easy, so after circling around a few times and finally finding one in the parking lot of a closed restaurant across the street, Andi ran into The Rhody to check out the menu. By this point in our trip, we were tired of taking Tory and Aden out to eat only to listen to them complain about the food and its lack of suitable kid-food offerings, so better to assess the situation before committing. Andi returned about 15 minutes later with take-out food to eat in the RV. He said the small cafe was packed which surprised us because it was 1:00pm in the middle of the week and felt like we were in the middle of nowhere USA. Andi ended up buying us lunch to-go from the bakery counter because the line was so long for the restaurant. He brought back an artichoke baguette sandwich and peanut soup for he and I to share (which were incredibly unique and delicious) & a cupcake for the kids to share. I made Tory a cheese and bean burrito and Aden a hot dog in the RV microwave while Andi and I enjoyed our gourmet lunch in the parking lot.

Back on the road, we continued along Washington’s Highway 11 in route to Larrabee State Park. A few minutes into the drive we saw it — the ocean! — or rather, Bellingham Bay. It was a wonderful sight for the eyes. We saw sailboats and beautiful islands in the water outside our window. Everyone in the RV cheered for joy!

Larrabee State Park was first-come-first-served, so we wanted to get there early in the afternoon to claim a spot. We’d learned the hard way that Washington campgrounds, specifically state parks, weren’t the best at communicating their availability during the off-season. The state park website often said a campground was open, only to find out that it wasn’t after we’d arrived and planned to camp there for the night.

We arrived at Larrabee State Park and were surprised to see several campers already set up in their sites for the night. We still had plenty of campsites to choose from and spent the next 30 minutes driving around the campground, from one site to another, to find the site that best met our criteria: level site, away from dogs, preferably with a view, etc.

After we were set up, we pulled the electric bikes off the rack and decided to bike around the state park to check it out. We rode down by the water and walked out to a cliff overlooking Bellingham Bay. From there, we continued on the Interurban Bike Trail which was about 6 miles to Bellingham. We brought our reusable grocery bags and planned to pick up food while we were in town, but about 2 miles in Andi’s bike started to flash a half-full battery icon. We contemplated risking it and continuing our ride into Bellingham, but worried he wouldn’t have enough juice to get there and back. (There was some serious hills on the Interurban Trail that needed some power to climb!) Ultimately, we decided to turn back and get the RV. If one of the bikes ran out of battery somewhere on the side of the ride, we’d be in trouble.

We unhooked our RV from its campsite and drove 15 minutes into the city of Bellingham. First stop: groceries. Andi picked a market called Haugen and a store specifically close to downtown so we could see a bit of the city while we were there. He ran in to get supplies while I stayed in the RV and did school with Tory. She wasn’t very pleased to be doing school so late in the day, but we hadn’t done any of her online coursework that day and grocery stores often have the great internet.

When Andi returned to the RV, he reported the grocery store to be very granola. They didn’t sell any paper products (he said a worker looked at him like he was from Mars when he asked to be directed to the paper plates) and he said there was an entire aisle of kombucha. We always say, you can tell a lot about a town simply by visiting its grocery stores.

It was getting late, so we decided to grab tacos to-go from a food truck across the street from the grocery store. With dinner and groceries procured, we drove to Boulevard Park with beautiful views of Bellingham Bay. We ate dinner and then skipped rocks along the water and watched the sunset. It was gorgeous! A perfect ending to a great day.

After the sun set, we drove our RV back to Larrabee State Park. It’s not ideal setting up the RV in the dark because it’s hard to see what you’re doing but we managed to park and plug in with little trouble. We popped some popcorn and settled in to watch an episode of one of our favorite RV families on You Tube — Keep Your Daydream. The trains were pretty loud at Larrabee overnight, so we didn’t get a great night of sleep there. But, so far we’ve been really impressed with Bellingham’s beauty.