Welcome to the Bellingham leg of the trip! We’ve been in Washington state for a little while now, and it’s time to share our experience in Bellingham, a seaside town by the Canadian border.
I’ve also reached a point where I will be skipping certain days that I don’t find interesting enough to talk about. I’m completely jumping over our time in Snoqualmie/Issaquah, where we spent a couple days before we went to Bham. I didn’t really do anything noteworthy in that area, but I love how round sounding the names are, if that makes sense.
During our time there, we spent time at coffee shops, enjoyed various spots on the local scene, and celebrated the 4th of July. We even had a little day trip to Vancouver, which I will detail in another post.
Trip Diary Begins
July 3, 2025
We arrived at Bellingham and began our day in a couple of different coffee shops. When it came time for dinner, we headed to Aslan Brewpub, where we tried some different beers and their house-brewed hop water. We ordered the Karaage chicken as our app, followed by Bacon Smash Burgers for each of us. Everything was very tasty!
July 4, 2025
Happy 4th! Jon’s friend, who lives in Seattle, came to Bellingham for the day to hang out with us. We spent most of the day hopping around to different bars and breweries. For lunch, we enjoyed delicious tacos from Black Sheep.
The Portal Container Village is a particularly cool spot in Bellingham. It’s an outdoor space close to the water with an industrial vibe and various container businesses serving food and drinks. We hung there for a bit and grabbed some beers.
Later, we moved on to another spot in the area, where Jon and I sipped on some espresso martinis that hit the spot. Though espresso martinis can feel a bit wintery (perhaps due to our particular enjoyment of them during a ski day), who says you can’t have one on the 4th of July? Do what you want!
After his friend headed back to Seattle, Jon and I continued to walk all around town. We ended up at an Uisce Irish Pub (once again, do what you want!), where we ordered a couple of creamers and some cheese bread. It wasn’t super poppin’, but we enjoyed our beers and the bartender was friendly.
When the sun began to set, we tried to catch the fireworks by the water, which called for a bit of a long walk. Now, I don’t personally care for firework shows that are too long. Sometimes it’s just like, we get it, ya know? I enjoy fireworks, but the shows often tend to drag, IMO. This particular show, however, seemed pretty short, and the grand finale left something to be desired. But hey, it was still pretty!
We grabbed dinner at JUXT Taphouse, just barely making it in time to get food. We paired our last meal of the day with a cocktail flight.
July 5, 2025
Jon and I started the day with one of our favorite summer/fall activities: a farmers market! (We’re big fans of the markets in Denver, and love exploring others in different towns we visit.) After getting our small haul of blueberries and a cookie, we went to a coffee shop until 2.
Later, we went out to the Irish brewery again and saw the same bartender. We also chatted with a very friendly older couple. We had a nice conversation and they gave us some good recs. They even shared a story of the time they saw 14 grizzly bears in one day! (I believe they said this happened at Glacier National Park, another spot on the bucket list.)
Post-creamers, we went to Schweinhaus Biergarten, where we had some more beers and split a brat. For dinner, we grabbed some pizza.
Side Quest: On July 6, we took a day trip to Vancouver! A separate post will be coming soon. 🙂
July 8, 2025
For breakfast, we visited a bagel spot. I got a sandwich with an over medium egg and cheddar. It didn’t have meat on it (none of their breakfast offerings did), but it was actually pretty good.
Post breakfast, we ended up back at The Portal. There, I worked on an acrostic, something I’ve been doing lately to stretch my creative and problem solving muscles. It was super chill and barely anyone was there, but ’twas a vibe. We later returned to Black Sheep for some tacos.
Back at the hotel, I did the super fun shower and dressing my wound routine. Taking the gauze off is the absolute worst! I had grown quite tired of facing the horrors every day.
That evening, we headed to Aslan Depot for jazz night. Aslan Depot is another Aslan location with more of a lounge atmosphere. It was pretty crowded outside, so we sat inside and could still hear the music. I worked on another acrostic and read some stuff Substack. We vibed out for a little before turning in for the night.
July 9, 2025
When I was finally ready to rise for the day, I began to reorganize my luggage while listening to a podcast. Then, we went out for a late breakfast. It was raining (not too hard luckily), and the air smelled invigorating. I’m not generally an “I love rainy days” person, but I was kinda into it at that moment.
We went to Great Harvest Bread Co. after breakfast, where they were giving out free slices of hot buttered bread. I selected a seeded bread of sorts, which was hearty, savory, and super satisfying. Jon opted for a cinnamon rasin slice. We also ordered a blueberry cinnamon roll, a combo neither one of us had seen before. Naturally, it was delicious sticky sweetness.
Later, we visited a bookstore cafe. I ordered an iced ube matcha latte, and honestly, it was not my favorite. It was beautiful to look at, but the taste was not for me. The drink was milky, as lattes are, but the ube flavor itself almost felt like it made the drink milkier or something. In my experience, I find flavor additions in matcha lattes often cut that overwhelming milky taste, but that was not the case here. Anyway, enough of that. I browsed around the bookstore for a bit, which had so many books. Then, I walked across the street to check out nearby shops, while Jon stayed and worked.
I wandered into Bloomhaven Bottleshop, a store with entirely non alcoholic offerings. This place is so cool. NA options have certainly become more popular in recent years, but I’ve never seen so many different options in one place. While we do still drink alcohol, we’ve definitely become more mindful recently, and love the option for a fun drink that tastes like booze but isn’t. The owner is lovely and said the shop had been around for about 10 months.
July 10, 2025
It was the morning of checkout day. I began to wonder if the hotel was putting me in a funk and that it will be better and refreshing to sleep in the tent again, as much as I appreciate having the ammenties.
Jon worked out early in the morning, while I got some more sleep. When he returned, we got all ready and packed up and packed out. After a little bit more time working in a coffee shop, we checked out another bakery, Saltadena. We selected a chocolate cookie sandwich, along with two Lil’ Scrappies, their signature treat. We ate the cookie sandwich right after buying it, and it was decadent. 10/10!
Before leaving Bellingham behind, we swung by Whatcom Falls and had ourselves a little stroll in the forest. We headed on to Hey Dumplin for dinner, which offers Eastern-European style dumplings with a bit of fusion sprinkled in.
Our bellies were satisfied and it was time to move on to the next place. We drove to Anacortes, passing by some scenic bays on the way. The views of the Samish Bay in particular were so pretty.
We arrived in Anacortes and went to Creative Hub & Coffeehouse. The owner was so sweet and welcoming. When the coffee shop closed, we grabbed a bite to eat, and headed to the campground we had reserved.
On the way to the campground we stopped at some lovely viewpoints with amazing views of the water. (The photo under this date is from one of those spots.) As it goes oftentimes, the real beauty doesn’t translate in the photos as strongly.
After taking in the views, we went to camp. This campground was definitely interesting, and the spots were very close together. I will say though, they had some of the cleanest porta-potties I’ve ever seen. We wrapped up our night, unsurprisingly, with some Righteous Gemstones.
