Ski to Sea Weekend with Boundary Bay

Before the Race and After the Race at Boundary Bay

Friday, May 23 was the most successful Ski to Sea Block Party in the past few years! We shutdown the alley and introduced our 22-foot alley bar, complete with a barrel wheel system, to the public (see photos). The Block Party wouldn’t be complete without awesome entertainment! And the Atlantics brought the house down, per usual. Their saxophonist, Mark Kelley, and vocalist/pianist, Paul Klein, led a Conga Line through the Beer Garden, alley, Brew House, Bistro and Taproom before arriving back on stage.

On Saturday, May 24 we hosted the annual Bellingham Firefighters Pipes and Drums fundraiser with music from The Nubbins, and of course, the Pipes and Drums Band.

After the race on Sunday, May 25 we held a low-key BBQ with live music from local musician Kevin Chryst’s newest band, Fence-Fire.

Photos from the Ski to Sea Block (below)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Boundary Bay Team Party

Every year, we invite some of the best athletes in the Pacific Northwest to be a part of Team Boundary Bay! The day before the race we always have a fun meet-and-greet and team party. This year, we held our team meeting in the Edgemoor neighborhood in South Bellingham. The racers, family and friends enjoyed Paella from Paellaworks, a giant rope swing, cornhole and of course, Boundary Bay Ski-to-Sea ESB, which is a brand-new recipe this year!

Below are photos from Team Boundary’s meeting and party!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Team Boundary Ski to Sea

They don’t call it an Adventure Race for nothing. This year’s Ski to Sea Race presented a variety of new obstacles, especially for the Boundary Bay Men’s team. Trail runner Connor Whan nearly collapsed, toward the end of his leg, due to a health condition, barely making it to his finish line. After a rough start the Men’s team roared back into action. The canoe tandem had quite the finish. Team Aeromech just edged out Team Boundary Bay at the canoe leg finish line. (video)

Boundary Bay kept the competition close with Team Aeromech, until a deer collided with cross-country cyclist Kevin Calhoun, causing him to ride most of the leg with a flat tire. The kayak leg went quite smoothly for Dorian Wolter, even though high speed winds whipped across the bay. The handoff to Mountain Biker Russell Stevenson went flawless, but a BNSF freight train created a small layover for Stevenson as he waited for the lengthy train to pass. A race official timed how long Stevenson needed to wait, and subtracted it off the team’s overall time. Here’s a video of Stevenson waiting and waiting and waiting. (below)

We are quite proud of both of our teams! Here are the results. Photos are also below.

The Women’s team did a great job, as they always do, bringing home the Top Spot for their division (Competitive Women) for the 16th year in a row!!! After having a back and forth battle for first overall for a Women’s team they finished only 20 seconds behind Kulshan Cycles (who were in the Whatcom Open Division).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Recover at the Rainbow Center

Community is very, very important to us here at Boundary Bay Brewery and we take great joy in helping over 100 local non profits every year.  One of the ways we lend a hand is to open up our Beer Garden to non profit fundraising events and donate our graphic design and public relations time to their efforts.  As we’re doing for the Rainbow Recovery Center in June.

The Rainbow Recovery Center is a community service program located in downtown Bellingham.  It’s a peer run program that has been in operation since 1997 and services the mentally ill and homeless population in our community.  The center is open to all adults who are in or want to recover from mental illness and the services provided range from free meals and hygiene supplies to support groups and employment services.

On Friday, June 10th, we’ll be gathering the community together in our Beer Garden to help raise funds to support the Rainbow Recovery Center and ensure that this valuable program remains a viable part of Bellingham.  Join us at 9pm for live music, raffle drawings and a silent auction – not to mention great handcrafted beer!  And best of all, your $7 cover will go directly to the Rainbow Center to help fund their program.  Local businesses are donating prizes for the raffle and you’ll find great auction items to bid on like tickets to the Mt. Baker Blues Festival.

Music for the evening will be provided by The Atlantics, Laura Overstreet, Deb Smith & Kevin Milton and special guests.  Join us Friday, June 10th at 9pm!

Community Beer

We’ll be celebrating the 30th Anniversary of Village Books here in the Boundary Bay Brewery Beer Garden Thursday, June 17th.  There will be a taping of the Chuckanut Radio Hour , live music by The Atlantics, Alan Rhodes, The Bellingham Bean and poet Kevin Murphy. The event is free, and the show will begin at 7:00, right after the regular Thursday evening happy hour.  As an extra treat, we’ve also created a special Anniversary Ale for the occasion.

Boundary Bay Brewery is proud to brew a special Scottish Style Ale to help celebrate the 30th anniversary of Village Books.  Village Books has been a long time icon in our community that has drawn a cult-like following and devoted fans.  We wanted to celebrate that history with a version of our Scotch Ale which was our first flagship beer.  Our original Scotch Ale is a hearty beer with a full body and a fine malt character.  With just enough hops to balance the malt, the result is smooth and rich without becoming too sweet.  The beer we’ve brewed for Village Books uses more peat malts to emphasize an earthy, smoky quality which we thought symbolized the long history of this wonderful, independent bookstore in our community.

This is exactly the kind of event that we love so very much here at Boundary Bay Brewery!  We’ve always been strongly committed to strengthening our local community and economy, and a very easy way to do that is to support other local businesses who make a difference in our area.  Village Books is an excellent example of just that kind of business!  Join us here in the Beer Garden next Thursday…to celebrate Village Books and this incredible community we are all a part of.  Cheers!

Ski to Sea Weekend at Boundary Bay Brewery

Ski to Sea Weekend is, arguably, the kick off to summer here in Bellingham and the fun this year will be taking place May 22nd-24th!

The annual Ski to Sea Race from Mt. Baker to Bellingham Bay can be traced back to the Mt. Baker Marathon held from 1911 to 1913.  The idea for the marathon was developed by the Mt. Baker Club, a group of conservation minded citizens that were attempting to have the North Cascades area designated as part of the National Park System. The foot race to the top of Mt. Baker was a publicity stunt aimed at focusing the government’s attentions on the region. In 1973, the Mt. Baker Marathon was recreated and called the Ski to Sea Race. The Race, now a relay, was designed to showcase the recreational opportunities in Whatcom County. The Race has evolved into the “Grand Daddy” of all races, attracting participants from all over the world. In 2005, the Ski to Sea Race was featured nationally on the “Fox Sports Northwest” network, reaching 3.2 million households.

Interestingly, this race has also become a long weekend packed with celebrations all over town for racers and non-racers alike. The actual race is on Sunday, May 24th, but like the training the racers undergo, those of us on the celebrating side of things like to get a good warm up in too.  And that’s where Boundary Bay Brewery comes in to help!

We’re kicking off the fesivities on Wednesday, May 20th when we officially open our Beer Garden season with the very first Yogoman’s Wild Rumpus of 2009!  DJ Jordan Rain has been gracing our garden for years now on Wednesday nights in the summer.  He spins reggae while adults and children alike enjoy the beer garden, the BBQ, and hula hooping in the sunshine.  The event is all ages until 10 pm and kids get in free ($3 cover for everybody else)!

Then, on Thursday, we’ll have our Happy Hour BBQ down in the Beer Garden from 4-6 pm where you can grab pints for $1 less than usual and score brats, burgers, and/or bocca burgers (all with fries!) for $4.  What a steal!  Plus, every Thursday during our Happy Hour, we tap a different type of Cask Ale for your drinking pleasure and we have Robert Blake on hand to bring music to the Beer Garden and make your Happy Hour even happier.

Friday night is when all the fun around town this weekend gets kicked into high gear!  On Friday, Jordan Rain returns to the Boundary Bay Brewery, but this time he’s leaving the records at home and bringing his band instead.  At 9 pm, Yogoman’s Burning Band will take the stage in our Beer Garden and get everyone dancing with their fun, slightly kooky and super lively music replete with horns, percussion, and lots of guitar.  This is, seriously, not a performance that you want to miss! (check out the video below for a sneek peak.)

Acorn Project, another favorite Bellingham band, keeps the party going strong on Saturday night down in the Boundary Bay Beer Garden (9pm/$8 cover).  As a six-piece ensemble featuring saxophone, guitar, slide, keyboards, bass, drums, and percussion, Acorn Project produces an irresistibly unique sound and seemed to have perfected funk-infused progressive rock. Formed in 2004, this Bellingham, WA based sextet is rapidly building a devoted fan-base around the country.  Bring your dancin’ shoes for this show!

Sunday morning, May 24th, is the day of the actual race and, while we’ll have a women’s team competing in Ski to Sea, we’re also fitting in just a little more celebrating before the festivities end.  Ryder Cunningham will be playing down in our Beer Garden from 6-8 pm and then the Atlantics will play at 8 pm to wrap up our long weekend.  We’re certainly excited about Ski to Sea weekend…and we’re sure you are too.  Come celebrate Memorial Day weekend with us here at Boundary Bay Brewery!

Check out Yogoman’s Burning Band Dragon Bus video!

Benefit Concert for Tom Hunter

In honor of the extraordinary and beloved Tom Hunter, a weekend of music has been planned to keep the music going throughout Bellingham.  As part of Keep It Going, there will be a benefit concert here at Boundary Bay on Saturday July 12th:

Keep it Going! Day into Night Dance Party
3 pm – ? at Boundary Bay. Local bands featuring the TRUCKS, the ATLANTICS, RICHARD SCHOLTZ and FRANK JACKSON, HAPPY VALLEY SLUGGERS and more!

Each and every event is a benefit for the Hunter Family.  Donations welcome.

For more information on the weekend’s music events for Keep It Going: visit Tom Hunter’s Blog