September 24, 2015 Astoria, Oregon

We started out today at Fort Clatsop. This is where the Lewis and Clark expedition spent the winter when they  finally got to the Pacific Ocean. They stayed 102 days here, only 12 days it didn’t rain and only 6 were clear. Welcome to the Pacific Northwest! They were smart enough to put the fort in a temporary tsunami assembly area.  Here are a few things seen in the museum there. The Clatsop indians they met on the coast wore these conical hats to keep the rain of their heads. They made dug out canoes from single pieces of red cedar. The statue is of Lewis and Clark.

 

The fort is in a beautiful wooded area on the peninsula.  This is a re-creation of the fort from the plans that Clark drew on the elk skin case that he kept his papers in.

 

John photo bombed my fort photo. After the fort we hiked to the  spot on the Netul river where they landed.

At the Netul landing area. These pilings are left over from logging operations in the area.  The hike back was through a cedar forest. 

 

Welcome to Astoria. The oldest settlement  west of the Rockies. We have seen 3 other similar wooden indian sculptures across the country, we think it is the same artist.  Downtown Astoria has many scores of beautifully preserved 19th century and early 20th century structures. 

Fort  Astoria was built by the first group of settlers to the area lead by John Jacob Astor. It was later renamed Fort George. Behind Fort Aster  we had lunch at the Fort George Brewery on a nice outside deck. John is reading the beer book.

The Queen Anne style Flavel house was originally built for Capt Flavel in 1864. It is now a museum. We went to pier 39 and toured the Hanthron cannery museum where huge amounts of seafood were processed and canned in long processing lines. It is the oldest cannery still standing on the Columbia river. Construction  of the original buildings and docks began in 1875.

Sea lions live on these rocks in the harbor,with Astoria in the background. Astoria is surrounded on three sides by water and the fourth by a state forest. It is renowned  for it’s picture book Victorian homes and it’s steep hills.  Some of the fauna and flora we saw on our hike today.

     

Back at the campground I rode my bike to the beach and photographed  the 1902 wreck of the Peter Iredale and the cool clouds over the ocean.

September 22-23, 2015 Garibaldi-Astoria, Oregon

We moved about an hour farther north up the coast of Oregon today.

The Tillamook Bay engine is painted like a dairy cow. Probably because Tillamook Cheese is made in Tillamook. In downtown Garibaldi they have a cell phone booth, just in case you wonder where to use your cell phone.

We found a teeter-totter on Rockaway beach. I tried to take a photo of John in the air with his arms flailing, but was a little late, caught him on the way down. We walked by this  freshwater stream running down the beach into the ocean near some rugged rocks.

 

Sunset on the beach and with the moon above the coast guard lookout tower.

Cruising north there were a few cute small towns. This one is Wheeler. Notice the Tsunami Bar and Grill. Most of the coast of Oregon and Washington are in tsunami zones. The San Juan De Fuco fault line is right off the coast, if it moves, causing a big earthquake it will cause a tsunami to wash away the coast line.  Parts of the road along the coast were narrow, curvy with no shoulders and beautiful views. I looked at the views, John watched the road.

 

Other parts of the road are tree tunnels through very tall trees.  We passed Ms. Bigfoot along the road. Mr Bigfoot is a little farther down.

We are now camped at Fort Stevens State Park outside of Astoria. It is on a peninsula between the ocean and the Columbia River.  The river is so big that where it meets the ocean-called the Columbia Bar- there are very violent waves. Sea going ships have to have Columbia Bar pilots to guide them in. Then they are passed on to river pilots because of the shifting sandbars to continue on. In this sunset photo are ships lined up waiting for pilots so they can go up river or back down to the ocean.

 

While I was taking the sunset photo from the pier I looked down and there were all these sea lions. We had dinner at the Buoy Taproom, restaurant and brewery.

 

The Bouy is on the pier over the river, with a view of the river and the boats. There is a window in the floor so you can look down at all the sea lions on the pilings of the pier. You could hear them barking through the floor. We met Brad and Morgan Kolielusz for dinner. John worked with Brad in Fort Collins.  He retired and they moved to Astoria in June. They are loving it here.  It was fun to visit with them.

September 21, 2015 Rockaway Beach, Oregon

Blustery day at the beach. I love the energy of it. Mid 60’s, sunny, and very windy-10-20 mph. 

Very windy, you can see the sand blowing. It was blowing so hard that the wind caught in John’s jacket and blew him by me like a bat!

 

Wind on the wet sand. Cool wave patterns on the beach.

 

More blowing sand. I found this homemade beach shelter. See how the wind has stripped the needles off these trees that are the wind break for the rest of them.

I could sit in the shelter and be out of the wind, yet in the sun and watch the wind and waves. My aura on the sand.

  

This beach art was very cool.

 

Almost Stone Henge and burning bush like.

 

The sky and water were very blue.  The moon hung in a homemade cross.

The seagulls were fighting over this log. It looked like it was covered with tiny shell fish, must have been tasty judging by the racket they were making. The wind was really whipping the waves.

 

Blowing back to the campsite in evening light.  Not a cloud in the sky, probably blew to Nebraska.

A few wind patterns in the sand around treasures.