Bellingham Boar Nest

Baker Theater 2, originally uploaded by Gail Coulter.

Bellingham is full of historic buildings and wonderful places to visit. But like any city that has history behind it, there are also some challenges (not drawbacks, but rather surprises). The challenge here is driving to these wonderful places to visit, these historic buildings. The reason for this confusion is that Bellingham is actually an incorporation of three smaller cities that have  roots in the past century. Hence street names and directions have merged across several boundaries. This can create some frustration, minor frustration for me, a little more frustration for my husband. My husband calls the city a ”boars nest.” (He’s from Arkansas). I asked him what exactly a ”boar’s nest” is (I didn’t know). He said that a boar’s nest is a place where a boar lives that is all rooted up, basically a mess. He called the city a boar’s nest because the streets of the city are not laid out in a grid like pattern (nothing at all like Salt Lake City, which is fine with me). Streets bend and turn illogically and then suddenly deadend. One way streets blend into two ways and suddenly becomes one way again. And then finally (drum roll please), streets start out with one name and morph into another name, making it almost impossible to find an address. For instance (and this is just one of many instances),  in one area of town a street is ‘The Hannegan’. A few blocks down the road that name drops off and becomes ‘Woburn’, and then in another few blocks, the name of the street morphs into ‘Yew’. You can see the problem. So, we must make provisions for driving in this city that could make steam erupt from the ears if a person has low tolerance for driving around in circles. And that provision is in the form of a brand new navigation system installed in my car. Good call, husband, especially for a city where the streets look like a ‘boar’s nest’. Doesn’t bother me a bit. I like the character (both the city and my husband who calls it a boar’s nest).

Explore posts in the same categories: Photography, Western Washington

Tags: Photography, Bellingham, Western Washington, Boar's Nest, Historic Buildings

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.