Besides the Nobel Peace Prize, there are few memorials strictly dedicated to peace. The 67-foot-tall Peace Arch in Blaine is an exception, a tribute to the long-standing peace between Canada and the United States.

The Peace Arch has straddled the border since its dedication in 1921. Fragments of the Mayflower and the Canadian steamship Beaver are sealed in the walls.

Although most travelers pass through the U.S. border town, Blaine, it’s a place that can hold your attention for hours or a weekend.

Peace Portal Drive is Blaine’s main drag and where you will find the visitor center. Stop here for brochures, including a map of the self-guided tour of the sculptures.

A 44-page walking tour brochure highlights the history of homes, buildings and churches of Blaine. The tour is divided into three loops.

If you need sustenance before you set out, walk through the visitor center’s interior door into the Pizza Factory.

Downtown Blaine offers shops, low-key places to eat, a few sculptures and a bricked viewing deck overlooking Drayton Harbor, Marine Drive and Blaine Marina.

Drop down to the waterfront and stretch your legs in Marine Drive’s park, which includes sculptures of orcas and a gazebo, picnic table, benches and access to the boardwalk.

The road dead-ends along buildings that house crab and fish buyers. The large buildings in the distance once processed and stored fish for later shipments. The Nooksack Tribe recently bought one building for a fish store and processing plant.

Back on Peace Portal Drive, head south along Drayton Harbora: destination Semiahmoo Spit. Historians and tribal elders have differed on the meaning of Semiahmoo; perhaps “half-moon,” “water all around” or the name of the tribe, a derivative of a name given to the tribe by a U.S. Indian agent in 1854.

Bring your binoculars. The well-protected harbor is home to some of the largest congregations of wintering waterfowl and draws hundreds of bird-watchers on winter weekends. It is one of 53 Important Bird Areas in the state.

After driving across the south end of the harbor, head north on Semiahmoo Parkway on the long spit that nearly closes off Drayton Harbor. The spit is a bird-watching destination and a paved 1.5-mile trail provides bird-watchers with an excellent view of wintering wildfowl.

One of the historic buildings of the Semiahmoo Cannery Lodge — Alaska Packers Association maritime museum (also known as the Semiahmoo Park Marine Museum) at Semiahmoo Park — houses history and artifacts of the once-booming canneries on Semiahmoo Spit and the local cannery history.

Continue to the end of the spit to find award-winning Semiahmoo Resort, which has also won awards for its golf course and wine selection. Wine Spectator wrote that Semiahmoo had “one of the most outstanding wine lists in the world.”

Semiahmoo has a number of nice touches: incorporating part of an historic cannery into the Pierside Restaurant; a view of the Peace Arch, Canada and Mount Baker; a 58-seat theater (follow the smell of popcorn); Northwest marine charts, photographs of the cannery that once stood on the site and paintings of the tall ships that came to the cannery; a glass case of bird-watching objects, including a slide show of local birds and mammals of the area; and a large fitness room with a jogging track (27 times around the track and you’ve run a mile).

Information: Blaine Visitor Center, 728 Peace Portal Drive, 360-332-4544.

Columnist Sharon Wootton can be reached at 360-468-3964 or www.songandword.com.