 |
Ski to Sea Celebration 2008Bellingham, WashingtonThe 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. What actually starts up to entertain the masses is the Bellis Fair Carnival at the mall!
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! (I love to run but they would trample right over me!) 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. I get tired just thinking about it! This year the city did a really great job putting things together for the event. 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 below 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!
If you're wondering when a great time to visit Bellingham, Wa would be? I would say, "Memorial Day Weekend!" Check out the
Grand Parade.
The Grand Parade is a kick-off to the Ski to Sea Celebration.
Stay In Touch! Subscribe to Inside Bellingham!
|
