Brandywine Kitchen

This is the Brandywine Kitchen. It started as a place that had a sandwich stand at the local farmers market and has recently moved into this new fantastic space.

The place is beautiful, they kept it clean, classic and simple. The atmosphere casual to such a degree it almost feels strange because of the size and presence of the space. The building gives you the impression that you should be dressed up for the occasion.

They get a lot of the ingredients and products they use from local Bellingham businesses.

This is a buffalo french dip sandwich. It is fantastic. I have tried a number of things on their menu and this is the one thing I keep coming back to.

They also score extra points with me for using mason jars to serve their beer in.
brandywine kitchen is open till 11pm every day of the week, something which I have found to very accommodating and convenient because late night places are far and few between in Bellingham. The food is wonderful, the facility is beautiful and the staff is friendly and helpful. Go here for an adventure in your mouth.

Fairhaven Fish N Chips

This is located in the historic Fairhaven section of downtown Bellingham. The place is run out of a old double decker bus.

Along with the fish they also have a HUGE selection of soft serve. 

The fish is really good. I got a variety basket which is a basket filled with fried things. It was damn good too. The salmon was probably my favorite. Their tatar sauce was also really good. Apparently they make all their sauces from scratch. You can tell too when you taste it, it's excellent. 

The cole slaw isn't as good as my moms but I still ate it. I'm a picky slaw person so that's saying something. 

This is a really good fish N chips place. If you're in the mood for fantastic fried food make a stop here.

Park Butte

This was a trip my friend Sean and I took up to the Park Butte fire lookout. It was a relatively short hike. We walked over rock water and snow eventually ending up with a pretty impressive view at the summit. Here are the photos from the trip.

Glacial melt. It was the best water I've ever tasted. 

It was nothing but fog  in front of us, but behind you could still see the brilliantly blue, cloudless sky.

I don't think I've ever seen a dog that is as bad at catching things in it's mouth as Sean's dog Azzie. This is a photo of him waiting for the snowball to come to him.  

You can sleep in the fire lookout because it's no longer in use. Unfortunately a couple of elderly gentlemen had beaten us up there. They were feisty, probably dude to all the wine and cannabis they had been consuming since they had reached the lookout.

 Found this bumble bee walking around on the ground. I think it was still waiting for the sun to warm it up enough for its motor functions to work properly.

This is the cliff face the fire lookout is perched on.

As we were on our way back down we noticed this red object tucked up in the rocks just a couple hundred feet below the summit. We left our path to investigate.

 The bottle read "Crown Royal Placed by JHL May, 29, 2010"
Let's just say that it did not age well.

Azzie fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Then we found a dead dragon fly in the back of the car.



The End

Dinosaur Party

RUDY'S PIZZERIA

Rudy's is located in downtown Bellingham and is a great place to go for tasty, filling pizza.  

The restaurant is well laid out and decorated. The walls are colorful and covered in artistic mosaic work and the lighting is warm and inviting. There is also an elevated seating area. Elevated seating areas are something I am a big fan of so this scored a lot of points with me personally. 

I have only seen a few variations on order markers, which you set at the edge of your table, the ones at Rudy's I thought were clever just because you can have up to 52 different markers and the material is inexpensive. 

There is a large list of ingredients to choose from when constructing your pizza. What I went with this time was: Pepperoni, spinach, broccoli, artichoke hearts, garlic, feta cheese, bleu cheese and of course bacon. 

There are many things I like about the way Rudy's does pizza. They lay the toppings out very close to the edge of the crust for starters. This way you don't end up with a breadstick and a half worth of crust, which is nice. The pizza is nice and thick. Just about everywhere you go these days everyone is doing New York style pizza. Nothing against New York but sometimes I get tired of being able to fold a whole, large pizza down into the size of one slice. There is an interesting cheese laying technique they use too. It seems they put down a very lite layer of cheese followed by pepperoni. Then they put more cheese on top which encases the pepperoni in a kind of cheesy cocoon. Then as you're eating all of the sudden...

BAM!

Pepperoni in a bite which looked like it had no pepperoni. 

They actually layer all the ingredients within the layers of cheese. It's pretty amazing. 

Rudy's also earned some extra points with me for carrying one of my favorite alcoholic beverages. Arrogant Bastard Ale is not something you find everywhere, so it was nice to be able to enjoy it with my meal. 

All and all I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a good pie. 

BOUNDARY BAY BREWERY AND BISTRO

(this was a rushed review photographically speaking so the photos are particularly horrible)

This brewery is nestled in the heart of downtown Bellingham. Along with great beer they also offer great food ranging from burgers and sandwiches to variations on traditional mexican dishes.

The building is amazing to start with. The bar area has lots of seating and includes a garage door which they open, giving you a pleasant street view while you eat and enjoy the outside air.

There is a huge dining hall and two levels of outdoor seating.

On the lower level of the outdoor dining area there is a stage set up and they almost always have live music going on during the weekend.

I ordered Yam Alechiladas which is "A mixture of American yams, cheddar & jack cheese, carmelized onions & roasted garlic, wrapped in corn tortillas & topped with molé poblano sauce. Served with beans & rice"

The enchiladas were great. The yam filling was creamy with a light sweetness and no starchiness. The tortillas had a distinct and flavorful corn taste (makes sense I guess since they were corn tortillas) and added a nice chewy texture. The enchiladas were served atop a bed of seasoned spanish rice and black beans which were seasoned with cumin and celery seed. This was all topped with salsa, which had a strong cilantro flavor and sour cream with chopped green onion.

The dish had a well rounded range of flavors which worked well together and played off of one another nicely.

The only negative thing I will say about my experience was the service. My server just needed to pay a little more attention instead of walking away right as my order was coming out of my mouth. Also had to wait for my check for way too long. They were a bit busy but that's still no excuse.

I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants to eat and grab a great micro brew. Good food, great atmosphere, live music, outdoor seating, this place works.

Night Number One

This was my first night staying in the van. It was, by far, the most comfortable sleeping experience I have ever had. For this adventure I took the advise of my good friend Sean and headed out to Elbow Lake. Just past the trail head, which takes you to the lake, there was a huge pull out where I set up camp. There was a fire pit and some left over wood, from previous mischief makers, which I used for my own fire.
I felt bad because after spending time carefully crafting and feeding the flames I ended up ignoring the thing until it ran out of wood. The van was just too much fun. I had warmth and light already, I had no use for a fire this night.

I made myself dinner with the nifty Coleman stove I purchased off of craigslist and went to bed.

The next morning I hungered for adventure so I made my way down to the Elbow Lake trail.

When I first entered the woods, at this trail head, I got the feeling that I was in "The Fire Swamp" from the Princess Bride movie.

I was half expecting to battle an R.O.U.S. (Rodent Of Unusual Size). Unfortunately there were none to be found.
The first part of the trail is less than 1/8 mile, then you come to a river which must be crossed to get to the rest of the trail. I found a mighty, fallen birch which made the perfect bridge.

The beginning of the second part of the trail is fantastic. Fern covered boulders the size of school busses dapple a forest filled with mossy trees the trunks of which harbor fungus the size of dinner plates.

The trail continues up the mountain. Fallen trees bear their ancient root systems, woven together like magnificent wicker tapestries.

There are a number of creeks, streams and washes that cross the trail. The cool water is refreshing to the heated hiker.

As I got closer to elbow lake snow started to cover patches of the trail.

There was a family hiking out as I was on my way in. They claimed to have seen a bear cub on the shore of the lake while they had been camping. Seeing the camera around my neck they excitedly encouraged me to keep an eye out for the cub so I could get "some great pictures". I think it would be awesome to have some great photos of a bear to add to my portfolio. But what is even more awesome than bear photos? NOT being mauled and having my arms eaten off by a pissed off mama bear that thinks the lens of my camera is the barrel of a 30 30 pointed at her cub.
So I cautiously made my way up to and around Elbow Lake.

The lake is kind of like two lakes. The front one is larger than the one in the rear and harder to get around. The smaller one is very small and the trail leads right to it. There was snow around the bank of this lake but the water was still plenty warm to swim in. As far as the number of fish in the lake there are one of two possibilities. One, they stock the lake with fish and these fish all hang out and get fat and happy and healthy on every bug that stop on the surface tension of the water. Or two, there's just one, crazy fast, alpha fish that swims at the speed of sound eating every bug that touches the water. The fish were everywhere.
No wonder there are bear cubs hanging around.
And with that thought in mind I decided to head back.

The hike takes about three hours total and is close to two miles each way. It's not much of a challenging hike for anyone who has any idea of how to stand on two feet. There's one area that's covered in a whole cluster cuss of fallen trees. I pretended to be a balance beam walker for the circus and made my way across the trunks until I found the continuation of the trail. I did the whole thing in flip flops and would highly recommend the hike to anyone looking for a scenic activity for the afternoon.
I didn't pack a lunch but would also recommend doing that.
The trail is down a kind of logging road off of Mosquito Lake Rd. which is just off of highway 542. It's about a an hour and a half drive from Bellingham Washington.

On my way back I noticed a sign for a cemetery, accompanied by a grassy, dirt road that went up into the woods. It was right off of Mosquito Lake Rd. so I decided to check it out.

 It was a cemetery riddled with little trails that strayed off into the woods. Each trail leads to more plots for dead people. It was a neat area and I thought it a nice idea for a cemetery.