Chuck and Dee Robinson

What is Washington State’s top retirement destination? If you ask the experts, the answer is Bellingham. If you ask Chuck and Dee Robinson, they will wholeheartedly agree.

“We are both from the Midwest and knew we wanted to relocate to the west coast,” says Chuck. “Bellingham has everything we wanted and more.”

With its casual lifestyle, pleasant neighborhoods, outstanding recreational opportunities, and Western Washington University in its midst, Bellingham serves up just the right recipe for a growing number of retirees.

TopRetirements.com, an online tool for researching retirement destinations, had this to say about Bellingham: “If there was ever a town with momentum it is Bellingham Washington. It was rated the #2 City & Metropolitan area in the country in Cities Ranked and Rated. Kiplinger’s called Bellingham one of the top retirement communities in the U.S.”

Although they live in a top retirement town, at age 63, Chuck and Dee are not ready to consider retiring any time soon.

“Retirement? I don’t know what the word means,” jokes Chuck. The couple founded Village Books in Bellingham’s Fairhaven District thirty-one years ago.

The idea to start a bookstore came to them during a sabbatical from their work as schoolteachers. “We sold our home and traveled the country for a year.” They planned to go back to what they had been doing, but instead fell in love with the Northwest. “So we started thinking about what else we could do.” During their travels they talked to a lot of people who ran bookstores and it seemed like a good fit. The Robinsons then created a checklist of what they wanted in a community and set off to find the perfect spot. “We looked just about everywhere from the Canadian border south to Santa Rosa, California.”

Once they discovered the Fairhaven District in Bellingham, everything fell into place. Fairhaven is an historic neighborhood and serves as the perfect backdrop for their bookstore. It is also the neighborhood Chuck and Dee call home.

Why do they think Bellingham is a great place to live and to retire? “Because it has a great bookstore!” quips Chuck.

Although their goal back then was to find a place to settle and start a bookstore rather than a place to retire, many of the criteria they used are similar to those seeking the ideal retirement destination.

They considered climate, size of the community, a place with a college or university. They wanted to live close enough to a larger city for the amenities but far enough away so that it was its own town rather than a bedroom community. They loved the natural environment surrounding Bellingham: gorgeous views, lush green, practically unlimited recreational opportunities. “You can ski in the morning and sail in the afternoon,” reports Chuck. He also enjoys the fact that you can bicycle year-round in the northwest. “That is not possible where I grew up,” says Chuck of his hometown, a small farming community in Illinois.

While they love Fairhaven, they say that Bellingham is a town full of great places. “There are so many neighborhoods, each with its own particular flavor,” says Chuck. “York, the areas near Lake Padden and Lake Whatcom... We love the urban village of Fairhaven, but there are a lot of great neighborhoods here.”

The bookstore and related businesses, which started as a 1500 square foot Mom & Pop venture, now covers over 14,000 square feet. The Robinsons live in a condo above the bookstore, a perfect set-up for them.

“I love what I do. While we both like the idea of more free time – and having more time to read all those books that line the bookshelves of our shop – I don’t think either one of us is ready to retire just yet. We’re still having too much fun!” says Chuck. It helps that they have always made travel and leisure a priority. One wonders where they find the time to run a successful business, travel the world, volunteer at what seems like about every educational and community organization imaginable, and host an old-fashioned radio variety show called The Chuckanut Radio Hour… but wait, that’s another story!

Ready to retire or not, in Bellingham, the Robinsons do feel they have found the place they want to call home for the rest of their lives.

Village Books is located at 1200 11th Street, Bellingham, WA 98225. For more information, call 800-392-BOOK (2665) or visit villagebooks.com.