Bellingham/Deming

July 16-17, 2022

This weekend Josh and I headed north towards Bellingham.  We headed out Saturday morning and stopped at Terramar Brewstillery for beverages and lunch.  It was a neat place we recommend to anyone in the area.  A unique feature of the brewstillery is their spirits are sold in lightbulb-shaped bottles (I think because their location is in Edison, WA).  Since we had Lucky we couldn't check out the speakeasy bar, but we peered inside and would like to go back someday.  The rest of the property is dog friendly.  We split the Pork Belly BBQ pizza and an order of the oyster shooters.   The portions of food were great.  One pizza feeds two people, so we each had three slices.  The oyster shooter flights comes with four shooters so we had two apiece.  We weren't sure what type of oysters we had but they were huge!  It made "shooting" them difficult.    

After Terramar we ventured over to Larrabee State Park.  We hadn't been before but would definitely return.  There's a boat launch where we'd like to drop our kayaks in the next time we visit.  Lucky loved walking the beach and jumping from rock to rock.  

The day started off cool but while we were at Larrabee it quickly became muggy and uncomfortable (not to mention all the carbs from the pizza started hitting us).  We drove to our Hipcamp, called Zender Camp, in Deming, WA.   The property was large and it was neat that we could camp next to the river.  However, it was more festival style camping with little to no privacy between groups.  There are four campsites and although there is some space between parties, you can still hear and see one another.  The night was cloudy so we unfortunately couldn't do any stargazing.  

On Sunday morning we took our time getting up and ready.  It's nice that breaking things down goes quickly - we just pack stuff up and throw it in the van.  Josh goes another step further and straps it down so it's not rolling around while we drive, which is much appreciated. 

The day started off with a stop at Nooksack Falls.  The road to it was filled with potholes but the van did just fine.  Josh got some drone footage of the falls.  He was lucky he didn't lose the drone since he inadvertently hit a branch while flying over the falls.   After Nooksack we headed to Gruff Brewing in Bellingham.   We found this brewery several years ago and loved it as it's dog friendly, the beer is good, and the vibe is great.   Since we'd been here last there were a lot of renovations.  The outdoor seating is a lot larger and has multiple firepits.  

Our last stop before heading back to Seattle was at Taylor Shellfish Farms.  We have passed the entrance to the farms dozens of times throughout the years and never stopped.  We were happy we did since it's a neat experience and dog friendly.  We ordered a dozen oysters and six prawns.  When we finished we took a short walk down to the oyster farm.  If you stop here, be mindful of the traffic and pedestrians.  The road down to the farms is a single lane and doesn't leave a lot of room for turnouts.