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🐹 Dance of The Hamsters 💃💃

🐹 Dance of The Hamsters 💃💃

December 16, 2024

Good morning, Bellingham. This is your Monday update from The Hamster Wheel.

Yesterday's sun was a welcome break from last week's gray skies and dampness. We took advantage of the light by walking along Squalicum Beach only to find the tides were so high that the beach was impassible. We should have checked The Hamster Wheel!! 😆 It was beautiful nonetheless.

Also, we’re excited to announce that we’ve added a new section to the newsletter covering theater, dance, and other performance arts. 🎭️ It’s a work in progress, so bear with us as we figure out how best to format it so it’s useful. And a huge thank you to Dana Crediford, who kindly shared her Whatcom County Theatre Calendar with us 🙏.

~ Val & Evan

In today’s Hamster Wheel:

Fairhaven Library
Dance of The Hamsters
Food & Drink
Music & Nightlife

Nature, Community, Sasquatch, UAP

Photos From the Hoods

Sea Lions and Cormorants in the San Juans - 📷 by Brittany Ballard.

Coyote at Cordata Park - 📷 by Richard Marcus.

Glaciers on Mt. Shuksan - 📷 by Brittany Ballard.

Tag @bellinghamsterwheel on Instagram or reply to this email to get your photos in The Hamster Wheel.

Weather Forecast

Monday: 45°F 🌡️ 37°F | 🌧️ Light Rain | 🌧️ 90% | 💨 E 8 mph

Tuesday: 49°F 🌡️ 43°F | 🌧️ Light Rain Likely | 🌧️ 90% | 💨 E 5 to 9 mph

Bellingham Bay Tides

Day	Time	H/L	FT
Mon	7:03 AM	H	9.88
Mon	11:39 AM	L	7.35
Mon	3:34 PM	H	8.72
Mon	11:40 PM	L	-2.64
Tue	7:47 AM	H	9.85
Tue	12:41 PM	L	7.15
Tue	4:21 PM	H	8.24

Moon Phases

Weather & Tides from NOAA. Moon data astronomyapi.

Events, Updates & News Around Town

Get off the Hamster Wheel

Fairhaven Library After 120 Years

The Fairhaven Branch of the Bellingham Public Library turns 120 years old this month. To put that in perspective, in 1904, early automobiles were just entering the consumer market, and many streets in Bellingham would have been dirt tracks clad with wood planks.

The Fairhaven Library was one of 2509 community libraries that were financed by grants from industrialist Andrew Carnegie between 1883 and 1929.

The lower portion of the structure, still visible today, was built out of Chuckanut sandstone. It included a daylight basement that once included a working men’s reading room where “men could read in their working clothes.” It received “meager patronage.” 😆

The superstructure was built of brick. The public library website notes that “It turned out to be poor-quality brick, absorbing rain-damp through the walls. The remedy in 1910 was to coat three sides with stucco.”

I love the roadway to the library’s left in this early photo 👆️. Can you imagine how slippery that wood-clad street would get in the winter? Not to mention covered in mud and horse manure. 🐎 But imagine the tobogganing! ❄️ 🛷

Here’s a wonderful look at the interior 👆️. Taken in 1906, this photo shows the Main Reading Room with “dual electric and gas fixtures to provide good reading light, plus a fireplace for warmth and ambiance.”

The floors were milled from old-growth fir timber, which would have shined brightly as the lacquer would not by then have turned golden. The trim work is darkly stained wide-plank fir. A style that was popular in the decades before and following the turn of the last century in Bellingham’s commercial buildings and craftsman-style homes.

The Fairhaven Branch is open Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m.

In other news…

♻️ Sanitary Service Company (SSC) recently announced that: “All plastic to-go containers, including clamshell (hinged) containers, are no longer accepted for recycling. These items should be disposed of in your trash.”

Most of us are seeing fewer plastic clamshell containers. Their use was banned in 2022 under the City of Bellingham’s single-use plastic ordinance. SSC lists several additional reasons for this change:

Different styles of plastic to-go and clamshell containers can be made up of different plastics or sometimes multiple types of plastics in the same container.
Processors are only allowed a certain percentage of these types of plastics in their plastic bales, and, currently, their allowed percentage exceeds this amount, even without “accepting” them.
Due to the shape of plastic to-go and clamshell containers, they often end up flat on the automated processing line and get identified and routed as paper, causing obvious issues.

🏙️ The Bellingham City Council meets today (Dec 16) at 7 PM. You can review the agenda online. This public meeting is held in the Council Chambers at the City Hall or watch online. Of particular interest in this meeting is the subject of “Interim Ordinance Eliminating Parking Minimums Citywide.” I hope to dive into this topic and provide some coverage later this week or next. 👍️

⛵️ The Port of Bellingham Board of Commissioners meets tomorrow (Dec 17) at 4 PM. You can review the agenda online. Attend in person at the Harbor Center or stream live on the port’s YouTube channel.

Performance Arts This Week

Dance of The Hamsters

LIVE THEATRE

A Christmas Carol:
Idiom Theatre | Thurs, Fri, Sat, 7:30 PM

Shrek The Musical:
BAAY Theatre | Fri, Sat, 2 PM; Sat, Sun, 7 PM

Hadestown:
Mount Baker Theatre | Wed, 7 PM

The Nutcracker:
Mount Baker Theatre | Fri, Sat, 7 PM; Sat, Sun, 1 PM

The Secret Garden, The Musical:
Lincoln Theatre | Thurs, Fri, 7:30 PM; Sat, 2 PM

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever:
Anacortes Community Theatre | Thurs, Fri, 7:30 PM

DANCE

Swing : Bellingham Snow Ball @ Hotel Leo's Crystal Ballroom | Tue 6:30 PM Details.
Tango : TangoLeo Practilonga - White Party @ Hotel Leo's Crystal Ballroom | Wed 7 PM Details.

Food & Drinks

Hamsters Gotta Eat

Monday Food Trucks
A Que Tacos @ Goods Local Brews
Burnt Side Down @ Stemma Brewery
El Tapatio @ 4124 Strider Loop Rd
Luchadora @ Wander Brewing
Outpost Eats @ Kulshan Brewery (James St.)
Tacos El Tule @ West Marine (Meridian St)

Tuesday Food Trucks
A Que Tacos @ Goods Local Brews
Burnt Side Down @ Stemma Brewery
El Pollo Feo @ Kulshan Brewery (Roosevelt K2)
El Tapatio @ 4124 Strider Loop Rd
Galley 2 Go @ Stones Throw Brewery
Luchadora @ Wander Brewing
Outpost Eats @ Kulshan Brewery (James St. K1)
Tacos El Tule @ West Marine (Meridian St)
Tam Tam Pizza @ Fringe Brewing
The Galley @ Ponderosa Beer + Books

Mow the lawn? Nah.

Killer Condos & Apartments

1212 Old Fairhaven Parkway UNIT D-102
I've wondered about these condos many times. It's the building tucked back against the Fairhaven Creek gully to your left as you drive into the southside on Old Fairhaven. It looks cute, and what a fantastic spot with all that green space behind you!! Listing.

1031 N State Street UNIT 301
This one seems like an awesome opportunity if you're looking for a "reasonably" priced unit in the heart of downtown. Plus, this one comes with a gated underground parking spot, which is a bonus, given the current state of things. Listing.

Help Spread The Word

Refer three Bellingham friends to join our newsletter community, and we’ll include a birthday callout to one person you specify on their B’day 🎂. Get your referral link here. Your current referral count is: 0. You’re so close!.

Music & Nightlife

Spinning Into The Night

Monday Games & Trivia
Trivia Night @ Ono Kitchen & Bar | 7 PM
Trivia Night @ Paws for a Beer | 6:15 PM
Trivia Night @ Zeeks Pizza & Fountain Brewing | 6 PM

Hakuna matata

To All Our Readers

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Have a great Monday!!