September 25, 2015 Long Beach, Oregon

Quite the day, 3 museums! Cold –high in the mid 60’s and drizzly anyway

We went across the  Columbia river on the Astoria-Megler bridge into Washington. Over 4 miles long, this bridge is the longest continuous three-span bridge in the world.  It was completed in 1966. The state line is closer to Washington side. Oregon mileposts begin at the state line, so  you are already at milepost three when you reach land.  Our first stop was at the World Kite museum and Hall of Fame. It claims to be the only American museum dedicated exclusively the thrill, Joy, art, science and world history of kites. More than 1,300 kites from around the world are on display, including a special Asian Kite Collection featuring elaborate hand-made examples from China, Malaysia and Japan.  Every year in August they have the Washington State International Kite Festival.

 

Some of the kites we saw. A huge bird, the three dragon head kite is 70 feet long with 210 pieces, a crab, 4 tiny kites-about 6 inches tall, a huge Asian face kite-maybe 12 + feet tall, a kite made of leaves,  huge barrage kites were flown to protect unarmed merchant vessels  forming the equivalent of a aerial minefield. The 2000 foot piano wire they were flown from were strong enough to shear the wings off enemy vessels attempting to strafe convoys, a large embroidered kite, a blue bat kite –blue bats are good luck and kites that were used by the navy for target practice. Really a pretty museum.

Our next stop was Marsh’s Free Museum. It was mostly a large curio shop with a museum on the outer walls. A treasure trove of a curiosity shop that has been entertaining visitors since 1935. A few of the displays include a shrunken head, a two headed calf and 2 headed pig. The sea gulls we saw later, I needed a photo to fill in the 4.

There were lots of old vintage coin operated machines. A number of passion and love testers.  It is best known for Jake the alligator man.  Very entertaining place.  Our last museum stop was at the Cranberry museum. It was probably the most interesting.

 

We learned the history of cranberries, the key phases of the industry, from bog preparation and planting to marketing. There was a self-guided walking tour of cranberry bogs. Cranberries are vines not bushes. The bogs are not flooded till harvest when they float the berries up and collect them.

Some wild fox gloves I saw by the road, cranberry vines , cranberries and a cranberry color meter.  Our last stop was not a museum but  a road side pull out at Dismal Nitch. The Lewis and Clark party came down the Columbia river in dug out canoes they made. They were not very stable or easy to paddle. At this point they were caught in a severe winter storm with rain, high wind and huge waves on the river. They were trapped in this small nitch on the coast line in a narrow valley for 6 days. They were wet and cold, out of food, with their clothes rotting by then-miserable. They named this Dismal Nitch. There were interpretive signs and a small trail that led to this big bronze plaque. 

   

The view across the river from Dismal Nitch of Astoria , the bridge and pelicans. We wondered why they didn’t come up  and go into the restrooms at the road side pull out to get dry and dry their clothes with the hand dryers, or even cross the bridge. . .     The tide was out at the Dismal Nitch and the shoreline was lined with sea gulls on moss green rocks.