Whatcom Falls

What a perfect swimming day.

Lately The Mr. and I have been amazed at the amount of local attractions there are in this area that we did not yet know about. I think I should spend some time researching Whatcom county, because it seems there are innumerable things to do, as we are slowly finding out. Our latest surprise was Whatcom Falls. The Mr. had August 1st off and we packed our swimming gear and headed out the door. The falls are such a beautiful area to spend a day off, swim and relax. It's located by the Bellingham fish hatchery, so it was neat to see that as well. The fish are about 5 inches right now.

Fish Hatchery

The Mr.

The baby fish, swimming against the current.

Old stone bridge built in 1940.

Walking Path

Upper Whatcom falls and a rainbow. So pretty!

At Whatcom Falls there is an area called the Whirlpool. It is home to Whirlpool falls and what is called a punchbowl pool. You can jump off the cliffs around the pool at three different heights between just a few feet, to 50 feet. When we were there, the most popular height to jump off looked to be about 40 feet. On the internet it is said to be 50 or 60 feet high, but we doubt that. I didn't jump at all, but next time I definitely want to. I did swim quite a bit and the water temperature was perfect. At the base of Whirlpool falls, there is an oval shaped hole that it flows into that looks like a whirlpool because of it's shape and frothy water. It has been carved out of the cliffs and the pressure coming out of the opening is quite a lot. The Mr. swam into the pool, and then helped me to get there too, and it was amazing. The sides are all worn smooth and the pressure from the water is crazy. You can lean right into the middle of the pool and it will just hold you against the water at an angle. You can see it well if you watch this video of the area.

Click this link to see a video of The Mr. jumping.

Looking down off the cliff, 30-40 feet from the water.

Whirlpool Falls

Whirlpool falls and the punchbowl pool.

Falls and a Sing

Here are some photos from a group outing I went to a couple of weeks ago. It was so much fun! The guys/dads were all biking at Mt. Galbraith and the ladies decided to take the kids somewhere fun as well. We went to Whatcom Falls Park.

First we played. This is Tracy's youngest.

L to R: Bunnie, MoMo, Esther, David and Abigirl.

Static!

After the kids had spent some of their rambunctious energy at the park, we showed them the fish hatchery.

See all the fish? Maybe you can't see them, but every one of those little lines in the water is a 4-5 inch trout.

Whatcom Falls

More falls down the river.

The whirlpool (swirling pool at the bottom of the falls between the cliffs) is a fun place to swim, but I am not even strong enough to swim there, the current is crazy! The pond doesn't have a current, so it was a fun place for the kids to swim. Do you see the guy in mid air? He is probably about 30 feet above the water.

After swimming at the falls, Peter and Tracy fed us a really yummy North Carolina BBQ. I didn't get many photos that night but I did get a good one of the kitty. :)

These are homemade Jalepeno poppers that were so so good. The recipe is found on one of my favorite sites.

Puppy Love

At the beach

Snuggled up

In the car
(please take into consideration I blindly pointed and clicked while my solid focus was on the road ahead of me!)

In the lens of a stranger (thank you anonymous stranger who emailed this photo to me)

All dressed up (I couldn't resist, it was $4 second hand)

At Whatcom falls

At one point she stood on a rock like this and whined at The Mr. who was up to his knees in the water. She wanted to go to him, but was unsure of the water, it was so cute!

In the forest

The result of all these busy days

Petra is fitting right in around here. She loves her walks, loves spending time with people, loves her fluffy pillow and blanket inside her huge dog house and is growing so quickly! She is already starting to look more like a young dog than a puppy. She is teething, which makes her ears go all crazy, and it's been funny watching their different positions. The other morning she woke up and came to the window to show me that her ears had moved to the top of her head and were touching each other! Nothing a deep ear massage couldn't fix. I try to give her three or four massages a day and it keeps them laying flat at the sides of her head. It's sure crazy how much they can move just because of teething. It will be nice when she is over that stage, but I have no clue how long that can take. We are having fun taking her to all sorts of places with us. Most parks around here allow dogs on leash and have certain areas that are off leash, so it has been fun exploring with Petra.

Life is so different with a dog, but it has been a lot of fun. It has taken a lot of learning though, because she is so smart. I am spending about 10 minutes a day with her teaching commands and it is so rewarding. She knows several words and phrases already- come, sit, leave it, "off the road" and "cross the street." She is still a puppy, so none of these work if there is another dog around, or some giggling girls. I realized she knew "off the road" the other day by mindlessly saying it, not expecting her to obey, but she obeyed! Turns out I had been saying "off the road" and "cross the street" a lot during our walks and she learned them before I even thought I was teaching them too her.

One thing I really have to be careful of is not teaching bad habits. For example, only going on a walk if there are treats every millisecond. Now how did I teach this one? When Petra was younger, she would sit down during our walk and refuse to go any further. This was around the same time that I was teaching her the "come" command. So what did I do? I started bringing the treats with me and when she would sit, I would go to the end of the leash, say "come" and give her a treat when she obeyed. This worked great! Until all of a sudden I realized that the amount of sitting was basically doubling with every walk we went on, and it was because she figured the more she sat, the more treats she could get out of me. What a sneaky little girl! So I stopped bringing the treats on our walks and the sitting completely went away. Now she loves her walks, and runs to the door in the fence when she sees I have the leash in my hand.

K's Visit

My sister Kimberley was here for a visit at the end of August and we had a blast together. Every day seemed to be full of some sort of activity. Please come and visit again soon!

We had four friends over and served cupcakes and candy, sang a lot and played Apples to Apples. I think this version would be very interesting.

Just a few of the song books floating around.

I think the winner of this round was either Flying Monkeys or Spit. Neither are that legendary to me, but it wasn't my turn to pick!

We also visited Whatcom Falls.

Yes, Kim jumped- that little red blur is her. And no I didn't jump! I still haven't been able to make the leap, I'm a chicken. I borrowed this photo off her blog since I took it, but with her camera. I'm so proud of her, but it still doesn't convince me that I should try it! It's like 25 feet high! The Mr. has jumped off the 30 foot cliff on the other side several times, but I won't jump off either.

This little guy was climbing around outside one day and I brought him in to surprise my sister. She wasn't really surprised, she just wanted to take lots of photos of him. I placed him on the window sill and he climbed up the glass. Their little sticky toes are so cute!

We also made sure to spend a bit of time in Lynden. Buying fudge and icecream (not at the same time) and antique shopping.

Lynden has tons of these hanging huge flower pots that are probably 4 feet around and sometimes grow so low you can't walk under them. They are so beautiful.

Mmmm... Edaleen dairy has great ice cream. A double in a waffle cone is only $1.89. Kim got the swirl soft serve which is the best in the world and I got cappiccino on top and coconut on the bottom (hold the cone.)

Blaine waterfront. The land out to the right of the sun is White Rock, BC.

Blaine Marina