Finally Open for Business! Point Roberts, Washington
Long time readers will know that apart from living in Victoria, I have family on the mainland and in particular, in Point Roberts, Washington. I know that Point Roberts is kind of the antithesis of urban Victoria, but it is an important place to me so I do write about it occasionally on here. My last two posts on Point Roberts can be read here and here. Point Roberts is a unique place mostly due to its geography, which I get into in the first article and little bit the second and as such, am not going to touch on it again except to say that it is cut-off from the rest of the United States by Canada.
This separation from the mainland US had a pretty dramatic impact on Point Roberts during the pandemic after the border closed. While there were eventually some workarounds for locals to get over to Blaine or Bellingham, like a temporary passenger ferry, for the most part it was completely cut-off. Perhaps even more dramatic for local residents was that Point Roberts became a no-go place for Canadians. Canadians own a large portion of the homes down here; have the majority of the boats moored at the marina here; and make-up the largest part of the customer base for businesses here. In the blink of an eye, all of these owners and customers disappeared and you can imagine what that meant for the local economy.
Before the pandemic, Point Roberts was already a pretty quiet town, with just a handful of places to eat and shop. Over the course of two years with no business, many of those that were here had to close either temporarily or permanently. Perhaps the two biggest losses to the community, in my opinion, was the closing of South Beach House, a truly wonderful restaurant along the southern shore of the Point, and the golf course. I am not a golfer, but the golf course was a draw for people and it also had a clubhouse with a restaurant. In a place like Point Roberts, where you can count your eating out options on one hand, this was a big loss. While I was visiting last weekend I did take a drive through the course and it is in pretty bad shape and really has a bit of an apocalyptic feel to it. Hopefully as things open back up, someone will want to take another chance with it.
As of April 1st, Canadians no longer need to take a PCR test to return to Canada to avoid quarantine. You just need to sign-up for the ArriveCan app on your phone and show your passport and provide info on vaccinations. Once that is done you can travel back into Canada pretty easily with little fanfare. Due to some shopping needs last Saturday. I had to go back and forth twice and was able to do it with next to no effort at all. This change means that Canadians are returning to Point Roberts and we can expect this to increase as we move towards summer. So what can you expect if you want to go down there?
Accomodations
Well, if you want to stay overnight, there are lots of AirBnBs available still at least into May. There are no hotels or motels in Point Roberts, but there is a great campground at Lighthouse Park if you want to stay outdoors. I expect that both of these options will start filling up quickly though, so book in soon if you want to stay there. There are more formal hotel options available in Tsawwassen, but the fun is in staying in Point Roberts in my opinion.
Food and Drink
For food, you are still a little limited, but it is getting better.
Last weekend, I went out to the only restaurant currently open at night, Breakwaters Bar & Grill, as the only option it was packed as you would expect and there were waits for drinks and food, but we had an amazing server and when we did get our food, it was absolutely amazing. I highly recommend their burgers. As we were leaving, the place seemed to be just getting started as it was Karaoke Night. Apparently it stays open late on weekends, so there is a nightlife down here.
Other food and drink options currently include the Shell Gas Station, which also includes a small cafe; and the Saltwater Cafe. I have written about the Saltwater Cafe before, it is an excellent place to eat during the day. The last option that is currently open is the food counter in the Marketplace grocery store. Right now from about noon till 6pm on most days the counter is serving Mexican food. I haven’t tried it, but apparently it is pretty good. Starting on May 1st we will see the reopening of the legendary Reef Tavern. The Reef serves pretty basic pub food, but it is definitely worth a stop due to the amazing patio that looks out over Georgia Strait. It has to be one of the most beautiful patio views in our part of the world. And that is it right now. There are a few empty restaurant locations around Point Roberts and we can hope that at some point over the next few years that we will see some new options open up.
Shopping
The quintessential American shopping experience in Point Roberts has to begin at Marketplace. They have all your food needs here and a lot more. It is a great place to get anything your accommodation may be lacking and also have a very decent beer and wine selection.
If you need something a little more complex to fix up your place, Nielson’s Hardware is a wonderful small town hardware store. As I drove past it last weekend, their sign said that they would even be open on Sundays now which is great and needed.
If you want to get something special to remember your visit to Point Roberts, you have to visit Kora’s Corner Country Store. Formally known as Auntie Pam’s, Kora’s is run by a young couple that recently moved to Point Roberts with their young daughter. The store has everything from t-shirts to hot sauce and just about anything you could imagine in-between. It is a must visit store on your trip.
There is one very eclectic liquor store located right next to the Reef Tavern called Larry’s Liquor Locker. They have a really good selection of microbrew beers and as well as most other things that you might need. Make sure to check their wine sales as they can have really good wine at prices that would likely be illegal in Canada.
There are several gas stations that were originally built to supply Canadians with cheap gas. While most are exactly what you would expect, if you are choosing one to visit and get maybe something else, I would recommend Point Fuel and Gas on Gulf Road. Point Fuel has a large store with a great selection of snacks as well as beer and wine too.
Other Places to Visit
If you need something to read, make sure to stop into the Point Roberts Library. It is in a beautiful new building just across Gulf Road from Kora’s Corner. For a small place this is a pretty decent library. It is currently open Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.
Right next door to the Library is the old library and now the community centre. I believe before that it was the school for Point Roberts (there still is a school but just located a little away from the town centre). They hold some programs right now, but it is just starting to get back underway. In the same building is the Point Roberts Historical Society and they have a small collection in there for visitors to see. It is currently open just limited hours each day, but it is definitely interesting. Point Roberts has way more history than its size would make you think.
If you are looking to visit a church while in Point Roberts, the Trinity Community Lutheran Church is non-denominational church and it is open for services. Even if you are not going for a service, it is worth stopping by just to look at as it is a beautiful small town church originally built in 1913 by the Icelandic immigrants that lived here. They apparently even had services in Icelandic right up until the 1950’s!
If you are looking for something to do outdoors well Point Roberts has lots of options. The two best are the local county parks, Lighthouse and Lily Point. They are quite different from each other even though they are just about a five minute drive from the other. Lighthouse park is more built up with picnic facilities and the aforementioned campground. While Lily Point is a large nature park with long trails down the bluffs to the water. Lily Point was the site of a large cannery operation and you can still see some small remnants between the shrubs and rocks near the water. Both do have public washrooms as well.
There is, of course, a lot more to Point Roberts that I haven’t discussed from Maple Beach to Baker Field Park, and I will leave those up to you to discover. Now that we can go there I hope you will, the community needs people to visit for more than just picking up their UPS package and it will definitely be worth it for you!
