My husband’s family is from Bellingham Washington. I don’t know all of the details, forgive me if I unintentionally misrepresent the family, this is the story I’ve been told, or at least what I can remember this morning:
Back in…, I don’t know when, long ago in a land far, far away, two Ivecivic-Bakulic brothers left Croatia for America, one was my husband’s great-grandfather. They landed in Bellingham Washington. Croatians are natural fisherman as the Dalmatian Islands in the Adriatic Sea off the Croatian coast provide stunning scenery and incredible fishing. Bellingham Washington is at the very tippy top of the U.S. providing access to bountiful fishing in U.S. and Canadian waters.
After the two brothers land in Bellingham, one stayed, and shortened and Americanized the last name to Bakulich. The other brother takes the Ivecivic last name, then and changes it to Ivich and moves to Ciudad Obregon Mexico. Eventually parts of the Washington contingent moved to San Pedro California, for the temperate climate, great fishing and similar landscape to Croatia. The Bakulich family now extends from Washington to Mexico.
My husband grew up in San Pedro and always wanted a fishing boat. My husband remembers his father pulling him aside and telling him, ‘I have a surprise’. My husband responded, ‘You bought a fishing boat?’ ‘No,’ his father replied, ‘I bought a bowling alley.’ What? Needless to say my husband is a really good bowler!
Now the third and fourth Bakulich generation moves to Washington. Not moving to Bellingham, though we did visit there once and considered moving there years ago, the timing and the vibe weren’t right for us. Fishing is on our to-do list in Spokane.
My husband grew up fishing on the Pacific Ocean. My childhood summers were spent fishing in lakes in Ohio and Michigan. Between the two of us, we will – well, we should – be able to teach our kids something about fishing. We have taken then kids fishing in California with no luck, except for that one time at the trout farm but that doesn’t really count.
One definite rule once they actually do catch some fish, they have to clean what they catch. Nothing like chopping of fish heads, managing fish guts and scraping scales to appreciate fishing. Eating what they catch will be fun too. The older boys will eat what they are given, our youngest is very picky…yet he ate a raw oyster not long ago…so there is hope. We have hope there is fish to catch, clean and eat in Washington.
In addition to my husband’s family history, my family has migrated to Seattle in recent years. My mom and stepdad transplanted from California almost 10 years ago. My sister moved from Michigan to Seattle 2-3 years ago. Though Seattle is a 4.5 hour drive from Spokane (or a 50 minute flight my husband likes to point out), Seattle is a closer commute than what we currently have in California.
Washington knows our families that have come before us. Washington has treated them well. Though Spokane is new to us, we have Washington in our blood, like family.
Editor’s note: I’m no longer aloud to go out drinking then write a blog post. I forgot to hashtag! I love hashtags and thought about my missing hashtags all day.
multi-hyphenated-me 