{"id":4515,"date":"2023-07-15T15:27:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-15T20:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=4515"},"modified":"2023-07-19T20:59:00","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T01:59:00","slug":"valley-deep-mountain-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/?p=4515","title":{"rendered":"Valley Deep, Mountain High"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bellingham has bags of charm. It&#8217;s the Stars Hollow of the northwest. People stop when I\u2019m approaching a crosswalk and wait patiently for me to get to the other side of the road. The morning air is a fresh and temperate 60 degrees, the afternoons are not much hotter and the humidity feels non-existent. They take their gardening seriously. Not only in multiple community gardens and swanky hillside homes, but along the sidewalks, behind apartments, and even in the parking lots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/succulent-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4476\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/succulent-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/succulent-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">succulents galore<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-default\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/flower1-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4498\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/flower1-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/flower1-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">raised beds<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-thumbnail is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/flower2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4499\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/flower2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/flower2-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">flowers for parking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage race, from Canada to Whidbey Island, and the Northwest Tune Up, a mountain bike and music festival, are in town but traffic is minimal and people are polite. The pastry shops are amazing. You can walk everywhere.  I could totally live here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We drove up Mount Erie, to a surprisingly accessible path that led us to sweeping vistas of Whidbey Island and Deception Pass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"263\" src=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5253-350x263.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5253-350x263.jpeg 350w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5253-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5253-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5253-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5253-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">the air is sweet and clean<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"659\" src=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5778-1024x659.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5778-1024x659.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5778-350x225.jpeg 350w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5778-768x495.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5778-1536x989.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_5778.jpeg 2003w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">ta-da!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video controls src=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/mt-erie.mov\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>From there we drove to Christianson&#8217;s Nursery in the Skagit Valley, home to many flower farmers of renown like Floret. The show garden was closed, reserved for a wedding party, but we could still marvel at the variety of plants and the gorgeous hydrangea hedge.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"263\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/rkblue-263x350.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4502\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/rkblue-263x350.jpg 263w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/rkblue-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/rkblue-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/rkblue-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/rkblue-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 263px) 100vw, 263px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">so blue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>After a reviving coffee from Tweets and a pastry from Breadfarm in Edison plus a Make Bread Not War teeshirt, it was back to Fairhaven for a pre-birthday dinner nap for me and a bike ride for Parker and Robert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium is-style-default\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"263\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/bikers-2-263x350.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4523\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/bikers-2-263x350.jpeg 263w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/bikers-2-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/bikers-2-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/bikers-2-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/bikers-2-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 263px) 100vw, 263px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">bikers love Bellingham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A perfect mild evening for a celebratory dinner al fresco at Estelle under a fringed white umbrella. It had a fancy tapas vibe.  The birthday boy topped off his meal with a celebratory triple scoop of chocolate, cookies and cream, and Madagascar vanilla.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bellingham has bags of charm. It&#8217;s the Stars Hollow of the northwest. People stop when I\u2019m approaching a crosswalk and wait patiently for me to get to the other side of the road. The morning air is a fresh and temperate 60 degrees, the afternoons are not much hotter and the humidity feels non-existent. They [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[258],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bellingham","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/IMG_0829-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7OBxc-1aP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4515"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4680,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515\/revisions\/4680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.virginiaparker.net\/travel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}