Going Down A Birch Bay Water Slide With Spencer Jack Looking For A Big Chunk Of Driftwood

Spencer Jack's dad sent me a new video in Apple Quicktime .MOV format that I have to turn into a YouTube video to view.

In this latest video Spencer Jack is sliding down a water slide at the waterpark at Birch Bay. Birch Bay is a shallow bay between Lummi Bay and Semiahmoo Bay, just a few miles south of the Canadian border.

Birch Bay is not a town, but it has a population slightly under 10,000. This population swells during tourist season.

Growing up in Washington, with most of my relatives living in Whatcom County, that being the county due north of Skagit County, with Skagit being the county I grew up in, going to Birch Bay was a fairly common occurrence.

Way back in my memory my Grandma had a cabin at Birch Bay. I don't remember staying at the cabin, but I do remember having a birthday party there.

More often than not, if we were staying at the Bay, which is what locals call Birch Bay, we'd stay at Birch Bay State Park.

During the days of my youth and on into my older years there was a big piece of driftwood on the beach at the state park that lingers fondly in my memory. My nephew was tasked with seeing if that driftwood was still there, and if it is, to get a picture with Spencer Jack climbing on it.

On the driftwood subject, when he sent me the video, my nephew had this to say...

Had planned on getting your requested drift wood photo at the state park, however ran out of time and never made it that far.

The waterpark is on the north end of the bay, the state park is on the south end. It's a big bay, with very slow, very heavy traffic.

Birch Bay is a very shallow bay. Which is one of the reasons it is such a popular tourist attraction.

In summer, when Washington finally warms up, the tide goes out on Birch Bay, leaving a huge area of sand exposed. The sun then heats up that sand. Then, when the tide comes in, the water gets heated, making swimming in the saltwater of Birch Bay the warmest in the Western Washington saltwater zone.

I was going to say warmest in Puget Sound, but I think Birch Bay is north of Puget Sound. One would think I would know such a thing, but I don't.