Happy 12th BD to our Caelin! To celebrate her special day, we started with breakfast at a place that had crepes. At breakfast, we started Caelin's gifts that we brought. We had small gifts to give her throughout the day, so we started at breakfast. After breakfast, we walked around Fairhaven Village shopping for little trinkets and souvenirs before grabbing some coffee for the drive up Chuckanut Bay Scenic Byway. We stopped along the way at a small hiking trail called Teddy Bear Cove. It was a short 1 mile hike down to the bay where we walked along the shore and found lots of crab and even some purple starfish. They were beautiful! We spent about an hour on the shore before heading back up to the car to finish the scenic byway that connects Bellingham to Skagit County. We were all starving by the time we reached our surprise visit for Caelin which was to the Taylor Shellfish Farms right along the water. We ate a variety of 4 dozen oysters, 8 grilled Rockafeller oysters, 12 jumbo shrimp, and a fish charcuterie board that had cold halibut, tuna, bread, and mustard pickles. We sat on the deck and were able to see the boats going out to the oyster beds to farm them and pick up the huge collection containers of crab. Once the sun set and it got a little cooler, we headed back to the condo to relax a bit. We played cards, opened final birthday gifts, and then had brownies with gelato ice cream to celebrate Caelin's birthday. As we were hanging out at the house, we remembered that one of the websites about Bellingham mentioned something called Bioluminescent Plankton. Upon doing some research, we learned that the Plankton (especially at Teddy Bear Cove where the water is calm) has bioluminescence in the late summer months. The plankton give off light as a defense mechanism when the water is stirred up around them. The research said it was best to see around 1am. So, like any adventurers, we set out around midnight to drive to Teddy Bear Cove, hike the 1 mile to the Bay, and explore. When we got there, we were shocked to see that we could actually see it. It was one of the most beautiful things. We took turns playing in the water, dragging sticks through the water, and throwing rocks to see the lights glow. It was magical and all 4 of us agreed that this was the best thing we saw on the entire vacation. When we were done playing around 2am, we started the hike in the dark using our cell phone flashlights. We were so starving, that we even stopped to get McDonald's around 2:45am on the way back to the house. What a perfect day for Caelin's 12th BD and a great part of the trip!
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