Ski to Sea Celebration

The City of Subdued Excitement

The annual Ski to Sea Celebration in Bellingham, WA, is quite an impressive event every year.

Everyone says that it all starts at Mount Baker. I will take my stance and beg to differ, it all starts with a such a great community year around!

People train for the county's signature race that is known all over the world for week's and month's to participate. I have nothing but deepest respect for such hard driven athlete's.

What actually starts up to entertain the masses is the Bellis Fair Carnival at the mall. Then, the Grand Parade will be the next power-booster for this exciting event.

The ski to sea celebration has run for decades in Whatcom County. It expresses the unique quality of life this area offers in the outdoor world.

Nothing like getting the children all pumped up for the all Memorial Weekend events! It's about family, too! I love this celebration. It's talked about all year long and from people's all around the world. They talk about the last years event as well as upcoming hopes for the next year.

The Ski to Sea Celebration race has 7 legs of "very trying" athletic endurance. It starts at 4,300 feet on top of Mount Baker with the cross-country skiing to down hill skiing. Then the race is passed off to the runner's enduring eight long miles and a 2,000 foot drop!

The race then is onto the bicycling for 38 miles to the canoeing down the Nooksack River. However, this year the canoeing was cancelled at the last possible minute due to great weather and fast melt from the high country. The Nooksack was running high and too wild to let anyone try the race.

Then the mountain bikers race through hard trails, mud, and guck for 9 long hard miles and pass off to the kayakers who paddle through Bellingham Bay into Marine Park in Fairhaven. 85 miles in all.
This year the city did a really great job putting things together for the Ski to Sea Celebration. They had more than enough of volunteers to help. They expected around 35,000 people would be involved in one way or another with the Ski to Sea Celebration and in and around Fairhaven. As I was there and was in the midst of the crowd, my guess is....Yep! And it was really a great party and celebration!

The picture above was one of the kayakers we saw coming in. Bellingham Bay was a bit choppy. It's a wonder anyone could paddle their way through it. It's just amazing the strength and determination these people have!
They come into Marine Park, (near the Marina and downtown Fairhaven, south Bellingham), and are greeted with hundreds of on-lookers and food, vendors and entertainment to congradulate the racers. Thousands were on looking, many were entertaining. It was really just a great Memorial Day weekend!

It was odd that in all the crowd we were able to run into just a few people we knew. However, I was sitting in the popular Fairhaven Green that hosts all kinds of entertainment year around and this guy...I don't know, he just gave me "the look." He didn't seem to care my husband was near!

Well, so there is one in every crowd! No, really, this is Dirty Dan Harris, another signature in the history of Bellingham, Wa!

If you're wondering when a great time to visit and travel to Bellingham, WA would be? I would say, "Memorial Day Weekend!"

Check out the Grand Parade in Bellingham, too,...the kick-off to the Ski to Sea Celebration.

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