Our original plans for this trip centered on meeting people, rather than getting out and about, but none of these plans came together in Washington state. Jill’s nephew decided to leave Seattle the week before we arrived, and our friend in Vancouver, BC had to cancel our meet in Bellingham after her husband was taken ill from too much forest fire smoke. We stuck with the travel plan and took the opportunity to explore the area.

With no reason to stay in Seattle, we headed up to La Conner where we discovered a couple of museums and a great Polish restaurant.

We stayed a couple of nights in Bellingham and had a day out in Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Jill demonstrated again she can walk a lot further on trails than she can on concrete.

Nooksack Falls was just off the freeway, about halfway from Bellingham. It was one of those “I wonder what’s down this road…” diversions which produced good results, though midday summer sun creates challenges.

As we entered the national forest, everybody has a chance to relax around this lake; easy parking.

On up to the main event at Artist Point. Very large parking area, but by the time we got out on the trails proper, we didn’t meet many people; probably would have at the weekend. We were able to hike for a few hours and got some great mountain views, which are of course unknown in Michigan.