Blaine, Chuckanut Drive and Tulips

April 10, 2010 We took advantage of a sunny Saturday to go north as far as Blaine, one of the border crossings between the USA and Canada. It was fun meandering around the bays, and looking across to White Rock, B.C. where I lived for a couple of months before coming to Seattle. After lunching at Birch Bay State Park we motored down Chuckanut Drive, a very narrow road carved into the rocky hills running alongside the Strait of Georgia and the San Juan Islands. We intended to stop at the tulip fields on the way home but the traffic jams were astonishing. It was a nice day.

We took a break to stretch our legs at Blaine, having a look at the pretty harbor.

 

A statue overlooking the harbor depicted the women and children waiting for their men to return from the sea.

A young Bald Eagle taunted me as I scrambled through a cemetery, trying to get a picture.

 

Birch Bay State Park and our lunch view. Those lovely mountains are in Canada

A couple of gulls joined us, hoping for handouts.

This is a portion of a large flock of Brant Geese who scurried back and forth on a rocky spit.


In the east, the majestic Mount Baker popped up now and again.

 

As we passed this sign we could only read the first two lines. Curious, we turned around to read the rest. Phooey, it was just an ad for a storage company. It made us laugh.

 

Chuckanut Drive is gorgeous, the one drawback being that there are not very many places to pull off and take pictures. Most of the view points are obstructed by trees. I am looking west here, across the Strait to some of the San Juan Islands.

 

The tulip pictures are all taken from a moving car, so they're not good. The colors were lovely though.

 
There is no room to pull off the road unless you pay a farmer and park in his field.

 

And the traffic jams on the way home were incredible, especially those in the lanes coming north from Seattle. We were glad to be going the other way.

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