Day 9 - Day Off in Bellingham - Ferry Good Times: Cycling the Salish Sea

June 6, 2025

Day 9 - Day Off in Bellingham

Sunshine and relaxation (minus a little laundry)

Ah, a day off in quaint little Fairhaven Village! The weather is perfect, with an expected high of 72 degrees F, and sunshine all day.

We start our morning with breakfast at La Creperie, two doors down from the hotel. I’m expecting a typical American crepe experience — large spoonfuls of batter spread over a large round griddle and then slathered with various sweet or savory items and tolled into a tube. But this is authentic. I wish I had taken a picture of the menu.

The savory crepes are made of whole wheat and/or buckwheat and the menu is extremely varied. I can’t decide what to eat, so I ask the server what her favorite is, and she steers me atoward a Turkish breakfast (no crepes involved) that is comprised of two poached eggs over a bed of yogurt, with roasted potatoes and drizzled with a pepper sauce, lemon, and dill. Served with sourdough toast. OMG, So good! I wish I could remember the name of the dish — something like “curillo,” but also not. I don’t normally take pictures of food, but because this was so exotic, I couldn’t resist.

Then, because it’s our day off, we must do laundry. Unfortunately, the closest laundromat is a couple of miles away, so we need to drive. Rich drops Gen and me off at the laundromat while he goes to the local REI to see about buying a new bike rack for the truck. And this makes me realize that I’ve not mentioned that while we were in Tsawwassen someone backed into or otherwise hit our bike rack and severely tweaked it. The whole thing is bent at an angle. We can get one bike on it, but the arm that holds the front wheel of the bike on the back is unusable, so we’d have to tie a second bike on. We’re okay, as long as one person at a time is driving and the rest of us are riding, but by the time we head home from Bremerton, we’ll have to come up with a solution.

Anyway, the laundry gets done and Rich has an unsatisfactory experience at REI, leaving him with more research to do and no new rack.

After returning to the hotel and hanging up our wet bicycle clothing, we walk down the path to Boardwalk Park, where we enjoy a leisurely stroll along the water, punctuated by a stop for coffee and cookies.

View of the dock as we are walking down the path. We’re trying to figure out if the ship at the dock is a ferry or small cruise ship.

Walking down the boardwalk toward the park.

Gen, Rich, and Jim, checking out some of the informational signs along the way.

A solitary black oystercatcher spied on the beach.

Having satisfied ourselves with a nice long walk and coffee, we head back to the hotel for a couple of hours. I get some knitting done while Rich rests. We had decided earlier that skipping lunch in favor of a large, early dinner suits everyone better than a late lunch and even later dinner, so we head out again at 5:00 for our evening meal. We don’t have to go far. Less than one block to our left is “The Oven,” a pizza-focused restaurant.

Of course, after eating, we have to wander more, so we go up the hill to walk down 12th street, which we haven’t really explored yet, and to figure out where we will go for breakfast.

Fairhaven is a really cute town, full of historical buildings, pubs, shops, and tons of eateries. Turns out Skylark’s, which serves breakfast, also has live music in their beer garden on weekend nights. We stop for a bit to enjoy the music. The band is quite good, including the guitar player, but we all agree that he is too full of himself, which makes the performance less enjoyable.

The outside movie theater in the plaza across the street from our hotel. The mural is quite realistic and looks 3-D, though it’s been painted on a flat, construction block wall.

A close up of one of the windows in the mural.

Genny, hanging out with Daniel Jefferson Harris, also known as “Dirty Dan” Harris, the founder of Fairhaven.

The beer garden behind Skylark’s restaurant.

Tomorrow we will ride to Anacortes.

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