Ski to Sea Celebration

The City of Subdued Excitement

The annual Ski to Sea Celebration, 2008, in Bellingham, WA, was quite an impressive event this year! I suppose it is every year, but I suspect it just gets better and better.

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

Nothing like getting the children all pumped up for the all Memorial Weekend event! It's about family, too! I love this celebration. It's talked about all year long. The last year's event as well as upcoming hope's for the next year.

The Ski to Sea Celebration race has 7 legs of 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.

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!

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!

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 Grand Parade is a kick-off to the Ski to Sea Celebration.

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