Birch Bay, Semiahmoo, Blaine, and Peace Arch

We had wanted to drive along the coast in this area of Washington, so decided to do that this afternoon. We drove down as far as Birch Bay State Park, then back into Birch Bay where we visited the Visitor Center. The lady there was very welcoming and recommended that we drive on up to Semiahmoo.

Birch Bay this afternoon

As we arrived at the end of the Semiahmoo Peninsula, we were seeing a snow covered mountain in the distance. We saw a sign with information so pulled into the lot to find out what mountain it was... the sign didn't tell us the name of the mountain (though you can see it pictured at the top of the signboard), but it told us that this area was known as The Northwest Necklace.

More information about the Northwest Necklace

 We decided to walk along the path that took us further into the area of Semiahmoo Resort.

The mountain we could see in the distance across Drayton Harbor (it may just look like clouds at the horizon to you)... we stopped some locals to find out that this was Mt Baker, which we had seen a couple of days ago a bit more up-close.

Marina at Semiahmoo Resort

I had picked up a brochure about the Plover Ferry, but thought that it was not running after Labor Day...

Turns out that I guess it stopped running in July (I think this was dated July 7).

Canadian town of White Rock across Semiahmoo Bay

Blaine, Washington on the far side of the opening into Drayton Harbor

Another shot of the mountain - hard to distinguish from the clouds - with some of the dock area.

A pot of flowers at Semiahmoo Resort

Some of the buildings at Semiahmoo Resort

Dwayne put his long lens on his camera - unfortunately a darker cloud had come in to obscure the top of Mt Baker.

When he was examining the pictures after we got back to the bus, we realized that there were seals all along that decking!

Another picture of Mt Baker

We drove on into Blaine - all the way around Drayton Harbor. Pretty trees along the main street through town.

We drove up to Blaine to see the Peace Arch.

I walked over to the arch - Dwayne took this picture with his long lens from the other side of the entry road into Canada - and he got a picture of me reading the plaque at the arch.

Inside the arch -- on the west side...

Inside the arch on the east side.

Looking up toward Canada through the arch.

It was quite an impressive site.

Cars going into Canada - we saw a lot of folks from British Columbia pulling into fuel stations in Blaine.

The area where the parking is for Peace Arch is called Peace Arch State Park - it had a green area with some playground equipment. The road on the far side of the green area is 0 Avenue in British Columbia. No wall, no fence, though there was a US Border Control truck (and person in it, I think) in the parking lot who may have been watching people.

Tomorrow we plan to move to Bow, Washington, just south of Bellingham.