 |
   |
||||||||
|
|||||||||
 |
       |
 |
||||||||
|
June 15, 2012 Bellingham area shinesLAUREN KRAMERThere’s something cool about jumping in the car, driving an hour and finding yourself in a different country, a place filled with different faces, festivals, traditions, stores and scenery. When you feel like you need a break from Vancouver this summer, saunter south of the Canadian border and feast your eyes on some of the ways residents of Whatcom County celebrate the sunshine. Though most Vancouverites are drawn by retailers like Trader Joe’s and the Bellis Fair Mall collection, you might want to consider taking a peek at Bellingham’s Beth Israel Synagogue while you’re in the city. Bellingham has had a Jewish community since the early 1900s, when the first two dozen Jewish families arrived from the shtetl of Skopishok in northeast Lithuania. The synagogue was built in 1925 and though its stately architecture hasn’t changed much over the years, the fabric of the community that uses it certainly has. Like most European immigrants at the time, the first tide of Jews to Bellingham brought with them Orthodox religious practice. Women sat upstairs during prayer, looking down on their tallis- and tefillin-clad men, and the basement of the synagogue contained a mikvah that served an important function in their Jewish lives. Today, the Bellingham Jewish community has adopted Reform Judaism and the old mikvah has long since been removed to make room for a larger kitchen and reception facility downstairs, an area that doubles as the weekly Hebrew school. The upstairs women’s-only area is dusty and unused now, but the beautiful synagogue, with its old wooden pews, arched windows and elegant mahogany moldings still reverberates with prayer. One of my favorite area destinations in Whatcom County is Fairhaven, the last exit on the Interstate Highway 5 south, before you leave Bellingham. Fairhaven is where the city’s story began, a place that was expected to be the next hub city in the west, back in 1889. A railroad was built and the town was in full swing until 1892, when Seattle was chosen instead. Like Sleeping Beauty, Fairhaven fell into a semi-comatose state, its population dwindling immediately and its buildings left unfinished. Over the years that followed, though, after its incorporation into the City of Bellingham in 1903, Fairhaven pulled itself from dormancy and become a centre for artisans, students, cozy bookshops and boutiques, a place with historic character and infinite charm. Browsing is the reason most visitors come to Fairhaven, but if you come on a summer weekend, be sure to bring sleeping bags and a picnic supper because there’s more fun after dark. The Village Green becomes transformed into an outdoor cinema on Saturday nights, with families cuddled beneath blankets on the soft grass. The shows are all family friendly but start late, as they’re dependent on darkness for visibility. If Kits Beach starts feeling too claustrophobic, pack up the family and head south to Birch Bay, the seaside strip that forms part of the City of Blaine – but is vigorously fighting for its independence. Named for the forest of trees that hug the promontory, Birch Bay is a place of bald eagles and bright sea urchins, tidal pools and statuesque herons that fish silently from the shallows. At low tide, the beach becomes a treasure chest for shell collectors, clam diggers, skim boarders and sandcastle artists. Those artists will put their talents to work on the beachfront this weekend (June 16) for the annual Birch Bay Sand Castle Contest. The sandcastle designs range from ordinary to fantastic and are only available for a few short hours before the tide creeps in and reduces them, once again, to mere grains of sand. There’s no shortage of places to explore in Bellingham and, as you get to know its twists, turns and secret delights, you will discover that this city has a completely different personality to its bigger sisters north and south on the highway. “I like the small-town atmosphere in Bellingham,” said Tim Baker, a local who married a member of the Jewish community and has made it his hobby to catalogue some of the history of the Jews in the city. “There’s more culture here than in most small towns and, thanks to the university, it’s pretty safe and there’s lots of recreation.” He’s talking about the hiking paths that snake into verdant forests minutes from the highway, the many freshwater lakes and the seaside beach walks that locals haunt, hands firmly clasped around their coffee to brace themselves against the chilly winter. Back in Bellingham, it’s easy to fall for this city, filled with historic neighborhoods that refuse to relinquish their character to the forces of modernity. This is an essential part of the charm of Bellingham: a warm embrace of history and an adamant insistence that it not become a bland, unmemorable place en route to Seattle or Vancouver. Stick to the Interstate 5 and you might think it’s just that, but take a trip into the heart of the city and you’ll learn otherwise. Lauren Kramer is an award-winning writer in Richmond. Read her work at laurenblogshere.com. When you go:
|
|||||||
