Bellingham part 3

Some good news on the Kurt front and a few memories of the rest of our weekend in Bellingham

I pitched a fit and burned up the phone lines but could not get the State of Washington to change their laws. The RCW requires 75 hours of training for any facility caring for even one person who has even a tiny bit of Down Syndrome in their medical diagnosis. That’s 76 hours for every single staff member, basically blocking anyone with developmental disability from ever being placed in a larger memory care. So Greenlake would have to train all 65 of their staff, at a bewildering cost. No waivers. The good news is our intrepid social worker found a very good family home that will take Kurt and a quick tour confirmed it should be a good fit. They even had a dog that visits during the day.

DSHS is working on getting him one-on-one care for six hours a day. That would be amazing. And that’s about the amount of time Kurt seems to be calling me on some days. Assuming nothing changes at the last minute, he should get out of the hospital TODAY. Hurray!

Following up on my previous post about our anniversary weekend in Bellingham, we worked up quite an appetite shopping at the nursery. So we headed over to AB Crepes for lunch.

See that banana slice there on the window? The cook put on a cheeky cooking show for us that included slinging the slice our way. Very cute. Joseph and I shared the smoked salmon crepe and it was plenty. At least for me. Because I may have gotten the lion’s share of the salmon based on Joseph’s complaining. Look at the size of each half!

Our next stop was a bicycle show. I had no idea you could find so many people hanging on to old bikes, much less fixing them up and showing them! My did it being back the memories of saving up my $1 per hour babysitting money and getting a 10-speed secondhand for $100. It was so light, you could lift it with one finger. I rode it 30 miles round trip to somewhere almost every weekend. No helmet. No lock. But I did learn to carry a spray can that refilled tires and stopped leaks thanks to these crazy thorns I would periodically run over on the path to Newport Beach. I also bought those clamps that hold on to your shoes for extra pedal power. I never paid attention to its make and model. It was just transportation for me. Freedom. Until I hit my 40’s I never understood that bikes could be exercise.

Many of the bikes in the show were ridden in from somewhere.

Their owners jotted short little notes on the entry cards taped to the front to encourage people to vote for them.

But one entry referred me to manila envelope with a three-paged typewritten story. It was a single gear mountain bike created from scratch before anyone had thought of such a thing. Perhaps the first one ever?! And it had been stolen at one time, and by chance recovered from someone who bought it in Alaska and reached out asking its inventor to convert it to a multi-gear. After the owner recovered the bike, he was talked into racing it even though he had aged quite a bit and not in the shape he used to be. And he won! A great story. I gave that bike my vote even though it appeared I was the only one bothering to fish the pages out of that Manila envelope.

Let this be a marketing lesson for all of us. No one reads. Keep your headline to six words they always used to tell me when I was a copywriter.

We left before the winner was declared. It was time to visit the Big Rock Garden.

This turned out to be a wonderfully shaded, fully fenced park. Charming! And relief from the heat of the day. I didn’t see any big rocks, but there were plenty of sculptures!

One installation looked like a river of rock… made by river rock?

There was also a Korean War memorial. Basically a large shelter made in an Asian style.

We couldn’t linger too long because we were off to Whatcom Falls after that.

You start off in a park, then walk on a wide paved trail, then you come to a river and that’s where the trails branch off. A person could walk for hours if they had time and inclination. And there was also a nice bench to relax and take this view in.

But we were after the falls, and a picturesque bridge. My phone died, but Joseph took a couple of photos for me.

Whatcom Falls:

And the bridge:

There was also a spillway to one side.

I think this is water that has been redirected to the fish hatchery close by and then here it is returning to the river. I wish we had time to explore more. But the day was getting away.

Our last stop of the day was SoHo Bellingham, a Thai restaurant that also had “Dim Sum.” We were sad to learn that they didn’t have a cart, just a menu with pictures of the dumplings. I sure enjoyed eating them!

The waitress gave us adorable little alcohol-free drinks to help us celebrate our anniversary.

For a while, the sun was in Joseph’s eyes. We had a hilarious time trying to help him out.

We all shared our various curries and they were all tasty. Joseph had his dish ultra spicy so he was mostly on his own to finish it. For the finale, they surprised us with wonderful desserts that had coconut and some kind of gelatin with just a hint of sweetness. A great way to end the meal!

It’s definitely a plus having foodie friends be your tour guide in Bellingham.

I made a bit of a faux pas by first suggesting and then not reading the room right purchasing tickets to the movie Sketch. Team Mobile had $5 off per person, so I thought it was serendipity I guess.

This is kind of a children’s movie but also a creative one so I thought it would be up our friend’s alley. They were a bit shocked that I had rushed into the arrangements but good-naturedly relented with a promise of forgiveness somewhere down the road.

Right next to the movie theater was an ice cream joint. Since Joseph was disappointed that Edaleen Ice Cream had closed down in Bellingham, this turned out to be a consolation prize for him.

It wasn’t as good and it was more expensive but I was glad he otherwise enjoyed his butter pecan ice cream.

It turned out we all enjoyed the movie and the best part was getting a code at the end to download an app that converts a child’s sketches into animated creatures. Kurt had a good time with that a couple days later when I visited him.

Of course, you have to watch a promo for the movie every time you scan a sketch in. Great marketing, but annoying.

After the movie, the moon had risen and it was stunning to see as we walked to the car.

After the action packed day, we were glad to go back to the Chrysalis and enjoy our beautiful room. The next day was checkout day, but there were still several more adventures planned…