We walk into a bar south of the border

El Nopal, Sumas, Washington

We’ve been traveling this month, going to the furthest north, south, east, and west churches we can find. But when we went east and west, we didn’t end up going to bars at the extreme edges. This week was different; who wouldn’t want to go to a Mexican restaurant/bar that’s just a couple of blocks south of the Canadian border?

El Nopal hasn’t always been the furthest north bar in Sumas (and therefore Washington State). Valley Community Church, where we went Sunday morning, used to be a bar called Desperado’s. A couple of other bars north of El Nopal are also gone. According to their website, the first El Nopal opened in Everson, WA, back in 1988. Jose and Wendy Gonzales, the owners, eventually moved it to Sumas.

There were Halloween decorations outside alongside flowers (but no cacti). Inside there was a telephone booth with a sign forbidding entry (we weren't sure we had proper change for a call anyway). The place was colorfully decorated, with the kind of art one would hope to find on the streets of Tijuana. There was an unattended "cash bar" in its own space, with pull tabs and prizes.

The NFL was, of course, on TV, as it is in the vast majority of American bars on Sunday afternoons. But it was a bye day for the Seahawks, so the Niners and Rams game was on tap. We sat at the bar, and Susana gave us menus. We’d already had lunch, so we just ordered drinks and dessert: a strawberry daiquiri (which is basically another kind of dessert), a tequila sunrise, and churros. (We didn’t have to order chips and salsa. Susana brought them out immediately after we sat down and we enjoyed them like we hadn't just eaten lunch.)

We enjoyed the food and drink, but as a 49er fan, the game? Not so much (they’re 1 & 5 this season, so nothing new.) One of the servers, Stefanie, was obviously a Seahawks fan, wearing a Wilson jersey (#3 for quarterback Russell). We had the chance to ask her our two questions: “What makes for a good bar?” and “Whether you go or not, what makes for a good church?”

She said it was the same thing for both, “Good people.” She said the customers at El Nopal were courteous and kind. She likes the staff there as well -- they’re honest and hardworking. Most of the same kitchen staff is were working there when she began six years before. She also had kind words for Jose and Wendy, the owners.

The food that was carried past us looked good. You wouldn’t guess by the food that we were well over a thousand miles and a couple of states from Mexico, but when the check came, we had the option of paying in U.S. or Canadian currency (we paid the U.S. total. It was a lower number).

Speaking of things that are south, that’s where we’re going next week. Meet you there to finish up this month of traveling.

We walk into a bar without vampires (or werewolves)

Blakeslee’s Bar and Grill, Forks, Washington
I tried to read Twilight. I made it a little over two pages.

The Stephenie Meyer books came out while I was working in youth ministry, and some of the kids (more precisely, some of the girls) in the group were reading them. I thought it would be helpful to do the research. And I loved vampire lore. Dracula is a great novel. I loved Dark Shadows with the vampire Barnabas Collins when I was a kid and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an adult. The Lost Boys and Near Dark are films that get a thumbs up from me. But these glittery vampires… Not so much.

I attempted the first novel in the series, but it was boring and seemed, well, stupid. I read the synopsis of the book and its sequels on Wikipedia. The stupidness increased. Sorry, Twilight fans, vampires who drink animal blood and sparkle in the sunlight don’t fit with the lore I’ve loved through the years.

I bring this all up because we went to Forks, the setting for the Twilight books and films, for our bar visit this week. Fans of the books have apparently flocked to visit the home of the heroine Bella Swan, the vampire Edward Cullen, and werewolf Jacob Black, but nothing we saw around town seemed to encourage the fans. We saw one hotel with a sign that read “Edward Cullen didn’t sleep here.” It was all very different from Roslyn, the town we visited last week, which embraces its fictional alter ego, Cicely, Alaska.

Earlier that day, we’d visited the furthest west church we could find, and Forks was more or less on the way home. We could only find one bar in town, so we went to Blakeslee’s Bar and Grill for dinner. (We heard that there’d been another bar, The Smokehouse, until a couple of years ago, but it is no more.)

We decided to not ask anyone at Blakeslee’s about Twilight because we didn’t want to be thought of as people who cared about Twilight.

The Seahawks game was over by the time we arrived, people were still watching football. I heard a guy at the bar say, “I’m just here to watch the Cowboys game.” Dallas was playing Jacksonville. (“Bortles!” That’s a reference for those who watch The Good Place. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it.)

There were no Twilight references in the bar decor. There was a lot about the NFL (particularly Seahawks “12”) and beer and Sasquatch. But no sparkling vampires.

After we sat at the bar and got our menus, I went with the beef dip but Mindy went with something a little more unusual. That morning on the way to church, we’d seen a herd of elk, so naturally Mindy decided she needed to try the elk burger. I asked about the Schilling Cider on tap, and the bartender said she’d have to check what flavor was available. “I’m not sure what the flavor is. We had grapefruit chill last week.” Turned this week’s flavor was ginger. It was good. The food was good as well.

Our bartender was wearing a Blakeslee's t-shirt that indicated that bar rules were the same as preschool rules (among them, wet your pants and you go home).

Her shift was ending, but Darci was washing glasses behind the bar, and we saw an opportunity to ask our two questions. When we asked, “What makes for a good bar?” She responded, “Good company, good service.” I asked for more details on what makes for good service, and she said, “It’s attention to customers. Having what they want, when they want it. And watching out for sobriety.” She talked about the importance of keeping people from driving under the influence. “Sooner or later, you’ll get it.” That’s one of the trickier parts of bartending as well as one of the most important responsibilities of the job.

We asked our second question, “What makes for a good church?” “I don’t go,” Darci answered, but she went on to say it would be important that people in the church weren’t judgmental. “If I went, people would say you better come up to be saved.” Mindy and Darci talked about churches in small towns where everyone knows everyone. It makes church life a little different than in more urban areas (Do the vampires of Twilight go to church? Go to bars? Happy to remain in ignorance of these things.)

I plan to live the rest of my life without reading a Twilight book or watching a Twilight movie, but I’m glad we stopped in Forks. I’m particularly glad we went to Blakeslee’s Bar and Grill where we could enjoy its utter lack of sparkly vampires.

We walk into a bar in Washington (not Alaska)

The Brick, Roslyn, Washington
Before anyone messages us, let me make something clear: we know Roslyn is not in the eastern part of Washington state. Our geographic knowledge isn’t strong, but it’s not that bad.

We planned that during October, we’d go to the furthest north, south, east, and west churches (and bars) we could find. When we got to the east side of the Snake River, in Clarkston, Washington, we found a bar in an Italian restaurant just a couple of blocks from the border, and it seemed fine. Just … fine. And it was my birthday. There was a wait, even for a seat at the bar. The place wasn’t that interesting.

We knew that the next day, we’d be driving home past another much more interesting bar, someplace I’d much rather write about: The Brick.

Back in the ‘90s, Mindy and I loved watching the TV show Northern Exposure. It was about a New York doctor brought to work in the small town of Cicely, Alaska, for a fish-out-of-water comedy. Cicely (not a real town) was portrayed by the real-life town of Roslyn, Washington. The Brick, a bar/restaurant in the show, exists in Cicely’s real-world doppleganger as well. We wanted to go to there.

The exterior looks much as it did on the show. It’s a bit weathered, and it has a Coke sign I’m sure didn’t make it to the airwaves. Inside, it looked more Washingtonian than Alaskan -- particularly the Seahawks and “12” banners. Most of the tables in the bar portion of The Brick (another room with a separate entrance is the restaurant portion) were filled with people watching the game. Before long, the Rams beat the Hawks (33-31), but people kept watching the replays. (“Oh, look at that big boy run!”). Some people went to the pool and shuffleboard tables, but we sat at the bar.

Sherry the bartender gave us menus and took our drink orders (we both ordered ciders, I went with the Manchester Road Red Apple Cider on tap while Mindy chose Spire Crisp and Dry). I noticed an odd thing at our feet in front of the bar: a running water spittoon (neither of us spit, but we heard that the bar sometimes has races in the spittoon). Mindy ordered a burger and I ordered brisket.

On the wall behind the bar, I saw a notice offering gift cards to “Support our high school football team.” A jar on the bar near Mindy held donations for the medical needs of a Brick employee. Carlena, washing glasses behind the bar, told us it was their most successful fundraiser because people loved the employee and wanted to help her.

Since the crowd wasn’t too demanding at the moment, we asked Carlena our two questions, “What makes for a good bar?” and “What makes for a good church?” Carlena said that for a good bar, “It’s the staff, the personnel, if they work like a well functioning team.” After Mindy (correctly) guessed from her answer that Carlena was one of the bar’s managers, Carlena answered our church question by saying, “The pastor has to grab your attention.”

We talked about The Brick, and she said she appreciates the history of the bar along with the history of the town. The bar opened in its present location in 1889, and was rebuilt in 1898 using the same bricks (thus the name of the bar). It claims to be the longest running bar in the state (I’m not sure what happened during the prohibition years). She also said she enjoys seeing old and new faces. Most days there’s a mix of locals and visitors, often those who were drawn by to the town by a love for Emmy-winning TV shows. (In the last few years, another Emmy-winning show, The Man in the High Castle, was filmed in Roslyn.)

We were also able to ask Christina our questions. She was grabbing some fries while on break from work at a local distillery. She recently moved from Michigan, and she said that at a bar, “As a millennial, I look for entertainment. On weekends they have live bands. It’s a huge attraction.” She told us about bars in her hometown, Mt. Pleasant, where she went to the same bars her parents had gone to when they were in college there. She also mentioned that she likes when there are always lots of people when she’s at a bar. As for what would make for a good church, she said, “I don’t go, but when I have, I like when the service is relevant to life.”

We’ve been to the real Alaska. We even went to a bar in the real Alaska, but I must say we enjoyed our time in this phony Alaska almost as much.