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🐹 Windows Alive! 🐙🐙

🐹 Windows Alive! 🐙🐙

April 21, 2025

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

We hope everyone had a glorious Easter weekend and got to enjoy some of the community happenings. Evan and I talked spring cleaning, no actual cleaning took place, but hey, now we have a plan. Have fun, and stay safe out there!

~ Val & Evan

Nature, Community, Sasquatch, UAP

Photos From the Hoods

Bleeding Hearts with their Bouffant Hairstyles - 📷 by Gregory A. Green

Spring Lawn at Lake Padden - 📷 by Jessica Hamerski

Baby Squirrel - 📷 by G Green Inc Pest and Wildlife Management

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

Weather Forecast

Monday: 56°F 🌡️ 40°F | 🌧️ Chance of Rain | 🌧️ 20% | 💨 SW 5 mph

Tuesday: 58°F 🌡️ 40°F | ☀️ Sunny | 🌧️ 0% | 💨 SSW 1 to 5 mph

Moon Phases

Events, Updates & News Around Town

Get off the Hamster Wheel

Bellingham’s Celebration of Women Filmmakers

This week, the Pickford Film Center hosts the eighth annual CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival, running Thursday through Sunday. Showcasing 30 films from women directors worldwide, the festival celebrates diverse, powerful stories that “entertain, enlighten and inspire.”

The festival program includes short subject films, select feature narrative films, and award-winning documentaries, alongside Q&A sessions with filmmakers, industry and subject panel discussions, networking and social opportunities, and a special reception and program with the festival's Honored Guest Yvonne Russo.

Beyond the films, CASCADIA’s second annual visual art exhibition, Women Rising: Expanding Visions/ Diverse Perspectives, is open to the public at the gallery beside Dakota Art Store. The show features works from 55 local women artists. Get details and festival tickets.

Downtown Windows Come Alive

When you’re bopping around downtown this week, keep your eyes peeled for new art installations filling vacant storefronts. These works are part of the Windows Alive! project from Paper Whale, which harnessed the creativity of Western’s BFA senior design students to fill otherwise unused space in commercial buildings around downtown.

Credit to the student artists Olivia (Liv) Cicciarelli, Lily Shaw, Julian Cabrer, and Caroline Alton. Learn more about this program and find the locations of each work on the Paper Whale website.

In other news…

🏙️ Whatcom Parks and Rec informed the county council last week that the Plantation Rifle Range may partially open this year for the first time since 2021.

Based on the presentation to the council (worth a listen 👍️), the outdoor range is, and will continue to be, entangled in a major cleanup process to remediate high levels of lead in the soil and groundwater at the site. Meanwhile, renovations at the indoor range are nearly complete, paving the way for a potential fall reopening.

🏫 Meridian School District voters will decide on Tuesday, April 22, in a special election on a $70.9 million, 20-year bond to replace Meridian Middle School. The bond sets a tax rate of $1.35 per $1,000 of assessed value, costing a $550,000 homeowner about $742.50 yearly. Ballot Resolution.

🏙️ Bellingham Tourism Commission meets tomorrow, April 22 at 3:30 pm. The agenda is available online. This public meeting is held in the Mayor’s Boardroom in City Hall or can be watched via Zoom.

🚦Traffic Alert Ferndale’s Main Street Bridge will be down to one lane, 8 am–3 pm, today, April 21st, for a WSDOT inspection, with flaggers directing traffic. Use I-5 exits 260 or 263 to avoid delays.

🚜 Whatcom County Council meets tomorrow, April 22, at 1 pm, to discuss pre-hire agreements for public construction projects. This topic has raised impassioned voices from both union labor officials and the construction business community. Expect to hear much more as the new jail contract nears. If you’re curious about pre-hire agreements, this presentation delves into the subject. The meeting agenda is available online. This public meeting is held in the Council Chambers at the County Courthouse, or can be watched via Zoom.

Local Business Updates

Haggling With Local Folk

Worn Again Thrift’s Grand Reopening

Vintage clothing is just rad—it’s fun to hunt for, fun to wear, and full of character. Driving down Holly Street yesterday, I spotted Worn Again Thrift’s retro-futuristic neon sign lighting up the National Bank building at 103 E Holly Street.

Their grand reopening on April 19th brought them to a bigger, light-filled space, ideal for browsing curated vintage finds. It's exciting to see this vintage shop, launched with pop-ups in 2021, settle into a perfect historic location.

Food & Drinks

Hamsters Gotta Eat

Tuesday
North Fork Brewery

$30 for a family meal! Enjoy an 18" cheese or pepperoni pizza, a large house salad, and your choice of cheesy sticks, a pitcher of Root Beer, or a homemade cookie.

Test Your Knowledge

Bellingham & Whatcom Trivia

Which Whatcom County community hosted a rodeo in the 1920s that attracted up to 35,000 attendees at its peak?

The correct answer to the last question: “In 1886, the first route along present-day Guide Meridian Road was surfaced with what material?” was Milled Douglas fir planks.

In the late 1880s, “The Guide” was born as a plank road, offering stagecoach travelers a smoother, more direct route north from Bellingham to Lynden. First constructed in sections between 1884 and 1886, this wooden highway stretched 12 miles by 1891, costing a hefty $6,000 per mile to clear, grade, and clad with milled fir planks.

The photo below shows the Guide ( likely around 1890 ) with a horse-drawn carriage in the foreground.

By the 1910s, as automobiles emerged, the road was regraded with gravel under the care of Lynden’s John C. Anderson, and paving followed in 1914-1915, including the addition of the Nooksack River bridge.

Performance Arts This Week

Dance of The Hamsters

THEATRE - DANCE - FILM

BAAY Theatre:
Out of the Woods | Fri, Sat 7 pm; Sat, Sun 2 pm

FireHouse Arts & Events Center:
Bellingham Repertory Dance: If Not Now | Fri 7:30 pm; Sat 5:30 pm

iDiOM Theater:
Heroes of the Fourth Turning | Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun 7:30 pm

Mount Baker Theater:
Swan Lake | Thurs 7 pm

Mount Baker Theater:
Cascadia Women’s Film Fest - VIVA VERDI! | Fri 9 pm

New Prospect Theatre:
Bellingham Story Hour – Hot to Trot 18+ Event | Fri 8 pm

WWU: College of Fine and Performing Arts:
Untitled Tempest Project | Wed, Thurs, Fri 7:30 pm; Sat 2pm

WWU: Old Main Old Main Theater:
Bill Bowers - It Goes Without Saying | Sat 7:30 pm

COMEDY

Uisce Irish Pub:
Guffawingham | Mon 8:30 pm

The Blue Room:
Fun & Flirty w. Zahnae Aquino | Thurs 8 pm

PARTICIPATORY DANCE

Bachata : WWU Salsa and Bachata Club @ Viking Union MPR | Mon 7 pm
Tango : Urban Salon Tango @ The Majestic Ballroom | Mon 7 pm
Swing : B’ham Hop @ Hotel Leo Crystal Ballroom | Tues 7 pm
Cuban Salsa : Beginning Cuban Salsa @ Cof& | Tues 6 pm
Cuban Salsa : Intermediate Cuban Salsa @ Cof& | Tues 7:15 pm
Tango : Tango Practica @ The Majestic Ballroom | Wed 6:30 pm
Bachata : Bham Bachata @ ‘ONO Kitchen & Bar | Thurs 7:30 pm
Social Partner Dance : Flow Fusion @ Karate Church | Thurs 7 pm
Belly Dance : Baby-Wearing Belly Dance@ Boom Elite Martial Arts | Thurs 9:30 am
Line Dancing : Country Night @ Bar 211 | Fri 8 pm
Silent Disco : Sunset Silent Disco @ Zuanich Point Park | Sat 6:30 pm
Belly Dance : Belly Dance Fusion @ Bellingham Senior Center | Sat 10:30 am
Contra : Dan Carollo, Brandon Vance, Eliot Grasso + Laura Mé Smith @ Fairhaven Library | Sat 7 pm
Salsa : The Salsa Collective @ The Majestic Ballroom | Sun 5:30 pm

Help Spread The Word

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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 | 7 pm
Trivia Night @ Overflow Taps | 6:30 pm

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Hakuna matata

To All Our Readers

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Have a great Monday!!