Celebrating the 4th of July at the Beach

Our celebration started when we arrived in Astoria, Oregon on July 2.  The weather was cool, as we had hoped, so our spirits were high.

That afternoon, we went for a walk along the Warrenton Waterfront Trail.  We saw this grain ship heading upriver along the Columbia River. 

The paved waterfront trail.

The Ansac Amity grain ship was headed up the Columbia River.  After a short stop in Astoria, it's destination was Vancouver, WA.

The Astoria bridge connects Oregon with Washington.  It's tall so that the ships can pass underneath.

On Wednesday, July 3, we walked along the Astoria Riverfront Trail.  This coast guard ship is docked at the Columbia River Maritime Museum when it's not out in the water.

For those of you who are familiar with this area, yes, the Astoria Bridge is still being painted!

At my request, Dave posed for a picture in front of a propeller on display at the maritime museum.

The Astoria Riverfront Trolley is always fun to see!

The evening of July 3, Dave and I attended a free concert at Astoria's historic Liberty Theater which featured patriotic music presented by the North Coast Symphonic Band.  Who doesn't enjoy some Sousa marches, along with other fine music, at this time of the year?  Dave and I fit right in with the mostly white-haired audience.

On the 4th of July, we went for another walk on a different part of the Warrenton Waterfront Trail.  When it was time for fireworks, we decided to head to Long Beach, WA, instead of viewing the Astoria fireworks.  Long Beach is "the" place for fireworks.  We parked on Sid Snyder Street and placed our chairs on the south end of the Long Beach boardwalk.

Our chairs are on the bottom right of the picture.

This part of the boardwalk (looking north) was empty when we got there around 8pm, but it filled up fast.

Many people headed to the beach to watch the fireworks and set off their own fireworks.

We saw fireworks the whole time we waited for the "official" fireworks to begin, even before it was dark.  Lots of money was burned up that night! 

My new camera is supposed to be able to take pictures of fireworks, but I need to learn how to do it!

This morning, July 5, Dave and I took a drive to Seaside, Oregon and walked along the Promenade.  Cleanup was happening after the Seaside fireworks show.

Along the Seaside Promenade

One of the paths through the dunes to the beach.

This picture of the Seaside Promenade flag sums up my feelings about the celebration of our nation's birthday!

Clarkston, WA and Change of Plans

We arrived in Clarkston on Wednesday, June 26, in the midst of a thunderstorm.  We stopped for gas in Lewiston, Idaho, just across the river from Clarkston, and some of the streets were flooded!  The next day, the heat wave hit and the temperatures have been very high.

Here's what we saw a lot of during our drive from Wenatchee to Clarkston.  This is wheat area, as well as other grains and crops.   

In Clarkston, we like to stay at Granite Lake Premier RV Resort.  Our site, #36, faced the part of the Snake River called Granite Lake. 

See our bicycles in the picture?  Just beyond the green grass in front of our motorhome is a paved greenbelt multi-use path that follows the Snake River for 8 miles.  On Thursday, Dave and I rode the full 16 miles round trip.  On Friday, Dave played golf at Quail Ridge while I rode 13 miles along the bike path.  The only problem was that it was HOT, so we had to do it all early in the day.

The path from the RV sites to the bike path. 

On Friday morning when I finished my bike ride I saw this sternwheeler docked along the river.  The Queen of the West was being cleaned and rubbish removed.  It stayed in that spot for a couple of days and departed on June 29. To see the itinerary of the sternwheeler along the Columbia and Snake Rivers, click here. 

On Saturday, the weather was so hot that we decided to forego our attempts at exercise, and go sightseeing in the car instead.  Our destination was the Snake River Road.

We couldn't drive as far as Hell's Canyon on this road, but we saw some spectacular scenery.

Boaters and sunbathers were enjoying the hot weather.

In the afternoon, we drove to the Idaho side of the Snake River and explored Hell's Gate State Park.  We visited the new Discovery Center and watched the 30-minute movie about Lewis and Clark and their journey through Idaho.

From the grounds of the Discovery Center, we could see what I call "Big Rock" on the Washington side of the river between Clarkston and Asotin.  We had biked by there.  I don't know the actual name of that rock.

A view of the Snake River from the Discovery Center.

Also located in the state park was the new Jack O'Connor Center.  Do any of you know who he was?  I didn't know, but I learned that he was a famous big game hunter and author.  The Center houses his collection.    

We looked at the very nice camping spots, a few of which had full hookups, and as we drove back out of the Hell's Gate State Park, we saw this occupied osprey nest.

Now, about that change of plans.  We decided it was too hot for us in Clarkston, and was only going to get hotter.  We had planned to go from there to the Tri-Cities, WA, but it was predicted to be even hotter there.  So we decided to head for home on Sunday. 

We are now at home and it's hot here, too, but we will only be here for one day, and then we'll head to the coast, specifically Astoria, where the temperatures are much cooler.  So in a way, we'll be following the Lewis and Clark expedition, and the sternwheeler, from the Snake River to the mouth of the Columbia River.  As Captain William Clark wrote in his journal when they finally reached the Pacific Ocean, (sic) "Ocian in view!  O! The joy!"

Wenatchee, WA

We are now in (hot) Clarkston, Washington.  But on the way here from Winthrop, we spent two nights in Wenatchee.  When in Wenatchee, we like to stay at Wenatchee Confluence State Park.  We would have liked to stay more than two nights, but that's all that we could reserve.  It's a popular state park!

Site #20 has full hookups with 30 amp power. 

The view from our site.

The view of the Columbia River from our site.

The last time we were in Wentachee was a little over two years ago.  At that time, we discovered Country Boy's, a yummy barbecue place in the nearly town of  Cashmere. 

The food is delicious.  Between the two of us, we tried the brisket, pulled pork, and chicken.  We both agreed that the pulled pork was our least favorite, but they all tasted good!

The ribbon fries are my real favorite!  Yum!

One of the things we like to do in Wenatchee is to ride our bicycles around the Apple Loop multi-use trail.  But we had scattered showers both days we were there, so we settled for going for a walk instead.

Now that we are in Clarkston, the weather has turned hot.  Our thermometer says 101 right now!