O Canada (Part One)

A synopsis of my latest road trip in four parts:
Day 1: Oversleep, pack up, leave a couple hours late, drive across the North Cascades to the Skagit River valley north of Seattle with several short hike look at the scenery stops along the way, then up the coast to Bellingham staying overnight in the border town of Blaine.
Impressions:
#1 - The North Cascades are really the most like the Alps of any mountain range in the lower 48 - snowcapped with multiple glaciers, lush and green with huge trees, multiple lakes, and waterfalls everywhere. The peaks are jagged and upright with narrow valleys with 5-7,ooo feet vertical rise in between - the effect is that they look much taller than the Rockies ( with comparable 3-4,000 feet vertical rise from valley floor) even though they are not. A lack of altitude sickness is an obvious bonus here.
#2 - I could see myself living in Bellingham - in summer. The town reminds me a lot of Lawrence, KS. It is about the same size with a state university, well kept older neighborhoods, a strollable downtown with interesting stores and restaurants, and a green leaning leftist flavor (lots of Kerry bumper stickers on volvo, subaru, and prius compacts). The wow factor involves its ideal setting at the north end of Puget Sound where the sun rises over the attention grabbing snow covered massif of Mount Baker (rising 10,000 feet above Bellingham and holder of the world record for snowfall in a single year at 1100+ inches) and then sets over the San Juan islands and Vancouver island across the sea. This leads to countless recreational choices - should I go snow skiing today or perhaps go hiking in the chuckanut mountains just to the south or maybe go sea kayaking in the sound. In addition to this, the climate in summer is almost perfect with sunny skies, low humidity, temps in the upper 70's to low 80's, and the extended daylight hours of its northern latitude allowing all sorts of flowering plants to grow blooms of enormous proportions (I really miss my garden).
#3 - Unfortunately winter comes to Bellingham leading to short days, endless gloomy weather, fog and mist that obstruct the incredible views, and rain, rain, rain with very little snow.
#4 - Winter lasts for 8 months in Bellingham.
#5 - In Blaine the border crossing checkpoint is kind of pointless. I stayed in a motel one block from the US-Canadian border. The international Peace Arch park runs along the US side of the border. The Canadian side has a residential street right up against the border. The private homes off this street have the USA for their front yard. There is no fence, just a small drainage ditch (like the city hasn't raised taxes to put in curbs yet). The Canadian kids cross the border to play frisbee in the USA and then go home when the sun begins to set just like in any other neighborhood (well, I guess not quite like any other neighborhood....). I walked across back and forth several times - no black helicopters appeared, no security guards came running. The unarmed border is supposed to stand as a testament to eternal friendship between the 2 countries, but with current world events (and with Canada's no questions asked, welcome all policy on immigration), it left me feeling a bit uneasy.
#6 - I know I'm repetitive, but sunsets over Puget sound at this latitude near the summer solstice are well worth the effort to experience at least once in a lifetime (with sailboats cutting lines through the shimmering reflective waters, distant mountains of Vancouver island silhouetted against an orange sky, and seagull cries interrupting the soothing sound of sea grass rustling in the salty air.)