Point Roberts
Flight from Santa Ana to
Paine Field in Everett WA was OK.
The Paine Field airport is small but very attractive and much more
convenient than Seattle.
The only down side is the rental car facility is 3 miles away. Our hotel was in Mukilteo near the airport
and next to ferry terminal. Very large ferries (2) continuously run a 20 minute
trip to Whidbey island. Next day we started our drive to Canada. We took
a scenic route called Chuckanut
Drive, a 20 mile drive from Mt.
Vernon to Bellingham. It’s very picturesque, a place
where the Cascade mountains meet the Pacific,
but we couldn’t admire the views much because it was raining. The border crossing into Canada took about 20 minutes. The drive to the USA
border crossing into Point Roberts took 30 minuets because we got lost and
drove too far towards Vancouver.
The weather became awful – it was pouring and the visibility was bad. The
border crossing into Point Roberts took 1 minute. We found our cottage easily and
we were happy that there was wine in the refrigerator. After a brief rest we
embarked to explore this unique part of USA. We found a small café that was
open for lunch. With a population of
1300 there are not too many restaurants
and stores. Luckily, in the afternoon the weather improved and it became almost
sunny so we were able to enjoy our exploration of the 4.9 square miles of the US outpost.
There are 4 lovely parks/nature preserves here and miles of gorgeous beaches
(some private). There is also a beautiful marina with thousands of boats.
Boating is huge here with all the islands around. It was nice to walk the empty
beaches with tons of beautiful, interesting driftwood. We had a nice chat with
the owner of two Icelandic horses who’s lived in PR for 20 years.The border
between PR and Tsawwassen in Canada
is very porous. In some places you can just cross the street or a high yellow
curb and you’re in Canada.
There are warning signs, but no cameras or anybody to stop you. Later in the afternoon we found an
“international market”. It was huge and
had an unending supply of booze, wine and beer.
Canadians must come here to stock up. We had dinner in the only
restaurant here and it was not great.
Day 2
We crossed the border to Canada
and drove to Richmond (about 20 min) and took the
Skyline train (Canada Line) to Vancouver
centre. We were not sure how difficult it would be to find parking near the
train station, but it turned out to be a breeze. After a 20 minute train ride,
we were in downtown Vancouver.
Since we couldn’t find a tourist information, Bo picked out the most opulent
hotel, went in and approached the concierge.
She gave us a city map and a wealth of information. We started our walk
toward Stanley park and the rain got worse and
worse. Even though we both had rain jackets, we had to buy an umbrella to be
more comfortable. We noticed, however, that Vancouverians were totally unphased
by the rain. Many walked without any rain gear. There were also bikers and
runners doing their thing. Before the
park, we took shelter and had lunch in a nice upscale restaurant (Carderos). Bo’s
oysters and mussels were fantastic. Then, we resumed our walk along the sea
wall in pouring rain. In normal weather, this would have been a gorgeous walk
with fantastic views of the mountains on one side, and the harbor and the city
on the other. Alas, in this weather there were no views. In the park we found a
“Hop-on-Hop off” bus stop. We called the number and were told the bus would be
there in 25 minutes. We got on the bus and were dry and warm for the next hour
while we toured the park and the city’s various neighborhoods. It would have
been better to walk these neighborhoods, but at least we got an overview and
could imagine how beautiful this city is in good weather and visibility. As the
pouring rain continued, we too the train back to Richmond and drove back to our little cottage
in PR. The contrast between the Canadian side of the border and the American side is uncanny – from a
densely populated urban Tsawwassen to a completely rural and bucolic PR. Quite
amazing. Dinner was at the same (only} restaurant but it was OK.
Day 3
Packed and left our cottage and set out to meet the
realtor. We had about an hour before the
appointed time and it was almost sunny so we went to the Lighthouse Park
and walked along the beautiful empty beach. Then, we took one last drive around
the Point. The first house was a dump but the second was really nice. But it was too much of a house for us. The
border crossing into Canada
was OK (2 minutes) but the crossing to USA was crowded and took at least
20 minutes. We took a side trip to Blaine
to a resort (Semiahmoo) for lunch which the realtor had mentioned. She and her
husband take their boat from Point Roberts to this resort for dinner. It is US
to US so no border crossings. The resort has an amazing location with views of
the bay, but it’s enormous and not very atmospheric. The weather was clear so the drive along
Chuckanut was very pretty. We found our hotel easily (Staybridge Suites) but
they did not have airport shuttle on Saturday till 7am which was too late. So
we drove to the rental place and arranged to drop the car off in the morning
and have them drive us to the airport.
We opted not to drive to a restaurant for dinner and walked from the
hotel to a mall and bought a bottle of wine and a take out dinner.
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