Booksmart besties Molly and Amy pretty much aced high school. Valedictorian and student-body president Molly (Beanie Feldstein) was accepted to Yale, her top-choice university—and the first step in her goal of becoming the youngest Supreme Court justice—while study buddy and super-activist Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) plans to spend some time volunteering in Botswana before continuing her studies at Columbia. All those late nights at the library paid off—except that somewhere along the way,…

If you’ve read my writing for any length of time, you’ve probably discerned that I love the following: 1. Music. 2. A good wander. 3. People-watching. 4. Events that bring the community together. Any day I can combine those four things—and it happens around these parts on the regular—tends to be a good day.

Ski to Sea, which takes place Sun., May 26, and the many peripheral events in its extended orbit afford me the perfect opportunity to craft one such outing, and it’s a journey…

For lord knows how many years, my longtime snowboarding partner, P.T. Crinkle, has relished basking in the glow that comes from playing a starring role on a local team of outwardly mellow but secretively competitive Ski to Sea racers.

This situation appeared unchanged as recently as a couple of months ago when, during a late-night stargazing session at a remote backwoods location, he started griping about how his teammates had “coerced” him into doing the cross-country ski leg so…

A radish sends mixed messages.

They can look like something designed by Willy Wonka, but taste like mustard gas. In perhaps the ultimate bait-and-switch of the vegetable world, eating a radish can feel like leaning in for a kiss and getting slapped. The key is to get as much mileage out of that slap as you can.

Too often, spring radishes sourced fresh from local farmers markets or pulled from backyard gardens are sliced into salads, which doesn’t offer enough contrast to let them…

Every year, renowned actors, dancers, musicians, acrobats and other performers from around the globe make tour stops at the Mount Baker Theatre to share their talents as visiting artists, or as part of the space’s seasonal lineup. But a glance at MBT’s June’s roster—which features a number of Bellingham-based dance companies making their mark—proves local acts get their time under the spotlight, too.

The first gig on the list is Opus Performing Arts’ annual Spring Showcase, which…

A recent report by the U.S. Climate Prediction Center and the National Interagency Fire Center calling for this year’s wildfire potential to be “above normal” in the Pacific Northwest may have Whatcom County residents already thinking about the threat of local fires and another summer of smoke-filled air. But what would it be like to lose everything you own to fire?

Writer and cartoonist Brian Fies explores exactly that in his new graphic memoir, A Fire Story. In October 2017, his…

When I moved to Whatcom County more than 20 years ago, I spent the first year of my residency at my family’s longtime cabin on Lummi Island. It was the only time in my life I’d ever lived alone, and I soon learned that being surrounded by natural beauty 24 hours a day took some of the sting out of the fact I’d left behind a whole lot of people I loved when I relocated from Idaho to Washington.

I’d wanted a change, but it was initially difficult to adjust from having a full-time job…

Skagit is a land of wild rivers, soaring glacier peaks, fertile valleys and forested dots of islands sprinkling an inland sea. Powerful predatory whales live in these waters and feed on the tastiest wild fish on earth, the Chinook. Ours is as exotic as any landscape on the planet, and perhaps it is more threatened than many.

Those whales—the southern resident orcas—aren’t especially shy and can be viewed almost daily, although their numbers are in precipitous decline. Deaths in their pods have exceeded live births, threatening a spiral to extinction. They’re sick, and they’re starving. The cause? Increased human activity around the Puget Sound, as a region that is loved too much and too recklessly.

Alarmed by the decline of these iconic creatures, the Washington Legislature this session passed sweeping protections for the Salish Sea’s ailing orca population. Championed by lawmakers who represent Skagit and the San Juans, a quartet of bills cover a variety of measures, including whale watching, pollution and more. Yet budgets passed by the House and Senate so far contain no funding to continue the governor’s task force on orca recovery. There’s no agreement on plans to increase Chinook runs. And revenue measures to help pay for everything, from increasing hatchery production to enforcement of habitat protections, have yet to be decided.

As we dedicate this issue to celebrate all the best our region has to offer in scenic beauty, in recreation, in menus and samplings that are unique to who we are, let us acknowledge how fragile it is and how fierce we must be in its protection.