Join Thor, Bear dog, and me as we continue to visit the highlights in our new “neighborhood” while we progress toward building a waterfront home.
NOTE: People have been asking to follow our progress as Thor and I pursue our quest for our dream home with sunsets over the Salish Sea. So starting with my post of 5/21/22, we set out.
South of our building site on Semiahmoo Drive, the longtime resort beach of Birch Bay draws sun-and-sea-seekers to the only shallow, sandy saltwater bay in the county (other than polluted Blaine Bay). Thor and I hadn’t spent much time here over the years, other than an occasional drive to catch the warming waters at high tide on a sunny afternoon for a swim. But I have fond memories of many family visits here as I was growing up 4th-generation in Whatcom County. It’s an old-fashioned sort of place, reflected in the retro sign above. And, yes, we used to harvest delicious Dungeness crabs by wading in the eelgrass and scooping them up. They’re not so plentiful now.
Let’s start the tour from the south end, at Birch Bay State Park with its pebble beach and colder, clearer waters for swimming. (I use a neoprene top here for my brisk swims.) Bear dog doesn’t swim — he got very upset and barked from the beach during my first swim after we adopted him — but he loves to wade and get wet. He has a summer belly/leg trim, but his longer double layers of back fur actually insulate him from the heat. (Everyone asks if he’s too hot, but he likes to bask in the sun.)
Looking north over the bay:
The forest area of the state park is right across the road from the beach.
I snapped photos as we drove slowly north along the bay, this marsh area part of the park. Often there is a lot of bird life here, including great blue herons.
Our coastal areas are preparing for the next big earthquake due any time in the next few hundred years. Probably first to hit the homes at beach level will be climate change bringing more damaging storm waves, and eventually higher sea level.
The C Shop has hung in there for many years, though their “famous” chocolate is only so-so. They do big business with ice cream cones in the summer, and mostly shut down for winter. This is one of only a handful of small shops along the strip.
Another business is the Beach Cafe, the weekend hangout with music for the younger crowd. Most residents are older, retired folks who appreciate the mostly quiet strips of cottages along the bay.
There are still a lot of simple, quaint beach cottages reminiscent of my “old days” here:
In beach tradition, many of the cottages have names.
This one is hard to read: “Lotarest.”
Still some old fixer-uppers are hanging in there on these now-expensive waterfront lots.
A stretch of mobile homes right across the road from the bay. Just up the hill and inland, there are startling expanses of not-so-upscale mobile home parks, without much in the way of stores or amenities nearby. Thor and I are trying to figure out how/why there is such dense development away from any view or attraction rather than proximity to the bay.
Lately condos have invaded the strip.
And higher-end homes seem to be slowly taking over from the smaller cottages.
A sad note: we recently learned that the longtime Birch Bay family that owned this land and early home had sold it to the county library system with the understanding that the library would preserve the historic house. Now the library system is reneging on the deal and planning to tear down the house as “inadequate” for their plans. We’ll stay tuned for further developments.
Another retro Birch Bay sign:
As you enter Birch Bay Drive from either end, you’ll see one of these signs:
Many of the cottages will have a golf cart parked in front for driving along the strip, even though the former golf course is long gone. There are newer ones in the area, including the expensive Arnold-Palmer-designed Semiahmoo Resort course. Here is a cart chugging along the road:
The old course was right behind the clubhouse building across the road from the bay. Now it’s a restaurant. Another fond memory of my childhood was acting as Mom’s “caddy” as she’d golf, occasionally letting me whack a ball on the uncrowded course. Mom would rent one of the small beach cottages for a week every summer and take us four girls for a wonderful week of sunshine, swimming in the bay, playing miniature golf, riding bikes, and generally having a terrific time. Dad would keep working for that week, so we were free of his angry tirades, too. I think that one week a year must have been a rare time of rest and de-stressing for our nurse mom. I love to remember her singing, “Oh what a beautiful morning!”
Because the bay is so shallow, on low tide it seems like you can walk a mile out and still be wading calf-deep. On those summer visits, my sisters and I would follow the tide out, building sand castles and playing in the tide pools full of tiny fish. Then, on days with high tide on a sunny afternoon, we’d float and swim in with the tide as the water warmed deliciously from the hot sand. Just the other day, I repeated the experience, a luxury in these parts to swim in a warm sea. (Thor questions my definition of “warm,” and maybe I’m comparing this Warm to the really Cold usual sea temperatures that nevertheless pull me in. I’m probably part otter.)
From our bay wading, a view of Mt. Baker to the southeast:
Next week: I just learned that this weekend is the annual sand sculpture contest at Birch Bay, so I’ll try to catch some photos for you. Do you have nostalgic memories of seaside trips and cottages? I’d love to hear about them!
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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and a Pulpwood Queens International Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
