Welcome to Bellingham!

The City of Subdued Excitement.

Bellingham, Washington is 85 miles north of Seattle, Washington, and 50 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia. I had lived in Seattle when I was younger, and moved here after graduate school.

I moved here for urban culture, thinking I’d bop down to Seattle to see friends or up to Vancouver for shows and restaurants.

Then life happened, and I got busy. And I stayed in Bellingham for violence, dogs, and love.

Bellingham’s official motto is “A Refreshing Change,” but that official saying is used so seldom that I’d literally never heard it until I started writing this. Instead, what I hear, and what I see on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and the wall outside Lone Wolf Antiques (now closed) near the old City Hall Building is “Ye Old City Of Subdued Excitement.”

Bellingham is a city between, and much of what defines it is that position between. Bellingham centers on Bellingham Bay. Bellingham Bay is itself between, this time between the Strait of Georgia and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This means you can go by water from Bellingham, via Victoria San Juan Cruises, to Victoria, on Vancouver Island. Or you can go further, and reach the Pacific itself. So, to the west/northwest, saltwater.