A food-lover's tour of Washington's Chuckanut Drive

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 With the help of Kevin and Therese Beauvais and the rest of the team of Operation Smile Thailand, the campaign to offer 20 children a life-changing future became a reality.ALONG CHUCKANUT DRIVE It was the perfect impromptu picnic as my wife and I sat, bundled in winter coats, looking out over a log-strewn beach at Larrabee State Park, just south of Bellingham. We ate fresh goat cheese from a farm down the road, slathered atop sour-cherry lemon bread from Breadfarm bakery in Edison.

May I just say, ahem: "Yum."It was a pairing we'd chosen on a whim in a couple of quick stops along our drive, but apparently we weren't the first."That's a match made in heaven," said Suzie Clark, working the counter at Breadfarm.
"That's what everybody does!" we heard when we met up at Bellingham Farmers Market with Debbie Matyas, a farmhand and cheesemonger from Gothberg Farms in Bow, where we'd bought the fresh chevre at a serve-yourself, leave-money-in-the-box stand.It was a tasty mouthful to moan over — pleasurably — and the view was sweet, too: gnarled madrona trees hanging over sandstone banks carved like filigree art by wind and tide. Across the water rose the whale's-back hump of Lummi Island.

Chuckanut Drive, the 21-mile highway built in 1896 to link Bellingham to the Skagit Valley, meanders steep hillsides overlooking all this, and it's worth a day-trip drive just for the scenery. Add stops at farms, bakeries and cafes along the way or a short detour off the highway and it's a food-lover's tour-de-force.Here are some suggested stops, traveling from the south.We stopped for goat cheese at Gothberg Farms, 15203 Sunset Road, Bow. Besides the fresh chevre, available only during milking months, temptations included Gruyere, chic choc cheddar with chicory and chocolate, Gouda, dill and garlic, or Matyas' favorite, Welsh-style Caerphilly "It's made like a cheddar and brined like a Gouda and gets really soft and creamy with a buttery finish".