Smuggler's Inn Bed and Breakfast

n The News

From the Bellingham Herald - February 11th, 2004
Border-straddling B&B drops into
Blaine man's life - By Jack Kintner, For the Bellingham Herald

When his day job moved south, Bob Boulé followed his lifelong dream
to own an inn

BLAINE - Some people gripe about the way that ads can fall out of the Sunday newspaper. Not Bob Boulé.

That's how he found the Victorian farmhouse that he's turned into one of Whatcom County's more unusual bed-and-breakfast inns, in part because the international border runs right through his front lawn.

The inn provides him with an income that's allowed him to stay in the area even though
the job that brought him here three years ago has since moved south to Everett.

"Like a lot of folks, once I got here I didn't want to leave," he said.

Eye-catching ad
The ad that got Boulé's attention was in The Bellingham Herald's real estate booklet. It fell
out of his paper and landed at his feet on a Sunday in the summer of 2001.

"This really neat old Victorian farmhouse was on the cover," he said. "I got intrigued. I knew I could do something with it."

He got out of another house deal that was pending and, after some competitive bidding, bought the farmhouse, which was being offered at auction after a foreclosure. Boulé said he got "essentially twice the room for half the cost."

What he ended up with was a project, a replica Victorian house that the original owner, still a neighbor, had started a decade ago and never finished.

"It looks old, but is quite modern, with steel girders for its basic framework," he said. "It wasn't cheap building like this, with 9- to 12-foot ceilings on the main floor and a 53-foot chimney made of 42,000 bricks.

"I've had architects as guests, though, who didn't believe how new it was until they took a closer look."

With his neighbor's help, Boulé has turned the four-story farmhouse into a bed-and-breakfast filled with antiques and exotic birds, friendly dogs and a front lawn that stretches out of the country.

His 6-year-old grandson came up with the name, Smuggler's Inn, and helped name the rooms after famous bootleggers like Joe Kennedy and Dirty Dan Harris. One room is decorated with fixtures and furniture from a Swiss bordello.

"It's our most popular room," Boulé said with a grin, "even with the Christian groups that have stayed here."

When Blaine officials recently tried to get him to remove a small but non-conforming business sign in his yard, he said "no."

"It's a good foot or two outside their jurisdiction," Boulé said. "So far Canada hasn't complained about it."

Limo service, too
The Bremerton native first worked during high school as a clothing salesman for Seattle's Frederick & Nelson's department store. He said he's wanted to operate a bed and breakfast ever since his travels as an import/export broker took him into homes around the world.

Since opening the inn last May, he's "just now getting into the black," he said.

A people-oriented marketing graduate from Central Washington University, he recently added limousine service with a 1987 stretch Cadillac that he drives himself, often getting invited into parties with his customers.

"I offer dinner packages with local restaurants," Boulé said, "and being here means I can get people to the Vancouver airport, or Canadians to Sea-Tac.

"We're adding more cars, too, including a '47 Chrysler once owned by the movie producer Walter Huston."

Night vision
Guests intrigued by the border location are given night-vision goggles to watch for people illegally entering the United States.

"We get our share of scofflaws trotting through here, some of them pretty scary," he said.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the U.S. Border Patrol installed what Blaine residents call their "eyes in the sky" along the border - tall poles with surveillance cameras mounted on top. Boulé's yard is flanked by two of them, and the roving border guards are never far away.

Even his dog Motley plays a role, Boulé said.

"He's a friendly kind of guy, and will walk along with people who wander through," he said. "When the Border Patrol spots them with the dog and they claim that he belongs to them, it gives them probable cause to investigate further."

Asked what kind of dog Motley is, Boulé replies, "a retriever, of course!"

Jack Kintner is a freelance writer. For questions or story ideas, contact
Dean Kahn at dean.kahn@bellinghamherald.com or 715-2264.

Check-In Time: 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM Check-Out: 11:30 AM

Smuggler's Inn Bed & Breakfast On The Border Between Vancouver, Canada & Blaine, WA USA
	2480 Canada View Drive (9910 Canada View Drive), Blaine, WA 98230 (In 2008, we where given new Street Numbers, so this is why we have two addresses listed above. Sorry for any confusion).
	For Driving Directions to our Inn, please use Smuggler's Inn PDF Map with exact directions, rather than using MapQuest, Google or Yahoo Maps.

Reservations: (360) 332-1749
Innkeeper: Bob Boulé