May 15th, 2016: side note.

So N and I decided to get ourselves an American post office box in Point Roberts WA. It’s a pretty popular thing to do for Canadians like us who live close to the border and have an aneurysm every time we order something from the States and have to pay the shipping charges. Shipping to Point Roberts: free. Shipping to Vancouver, less than an hour across the border: cost prohibitive.

As N wanted to pick up a bucket of freeze-dried camping food from the States, we decided to test out the whole process. For us it’s about 30 – 40 minutes from home to the border crossing at White Rock / Point Roberts on our bikes. N grabbed one of her hard bags for her bike and I went all minimalist, as usual. Neither of us had been to Point Roberts before so it was a bit of a motorcycle adventure, hence the blog post. We got down there and found out that it’s really nice!

Keep in mind that Point Roberts, WA is a tiny jut of land that is cut off from the rest of the continental US. Stuff that is shipped there literally has to cross two international borders: once coming into Canada and once going back into the US. Kids who grow up there have to be bused across the two same border crossings twice a day. It’s this crazy little hunk of land that, by being South of the 49th Parallel, is strangely remote. It’s quiet, lovely, and the safest place in all of the US. It also takes about 40 minutes to ride in its entirety. Anyway, we got across the border with the help of a very nice member of the American Border Services and popped into the In Out Parcel service a block away. It turned out that the bucket o’ food we got wouldn’t fit into N’s hard bag so we strapped it to the back of my bike with some netting from under the seat.

After that we meandered around Point Roberts and found ourselves at Brewster’s Fine Foods on Gulf Road. And fine food it was! We had a lovely lunch on the patio with spectacular service. Our waitress was even a rider herself! If you manage to get to Brewster’s, try the crab cakes. They are awesome!

Ok, that’s if for the time being. We’re heading to Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast next weekend for Victoria Day. We’ll have more updates soon.