Another Visit to Astoria, OR

After leaving Nehalem Bay State Park in Manzanita, OR, we headed north to Astoria.  Astoria is located at the mouth of the Columbia River, and along with the neighboring towns of Warrenton and Hammond, is a good place to see ships traveling to and from the Pacific Ocean.  There's lots to see and do in Astoria, and we never get tired of visiting.  In this case, we had just been there a couple of weeks ago, but this time we camped and  explored with our friends, Tom and Cindi.

On Thursday, we saw this ship, the Great Success, a transport ship registered in Hong Kong, which was anchored in the river. 

The Astoria bridge--still being painted!

On Friday, the four of us visited the Bumble Bee Tuna museum.  Before moving its headquarters to San Diego, Bumble Bee got its start in 1875 in Astoria. 

Located at Pier 39 in Astoria, the free museum is a work in progress and had displays showing many of the aspects of fish cannery.

In addition to the cannery museum, Pier 39 now features a Rogue Brewpub, a coffee shop, several businesses, as well as some offices. 

We had lunch at Doogers Seafood Restaurant and I can report that the food, decor, service, and cleanliness at the Warrenton Doogers were all excellent.  Their clam chowder was runny and I prefer thick chowder, but it tasted delicious. 

Then we headed to the Hammond Marina to watch our ship come in.  Well, it wasn't exactly "our" ship, but we enjoyed seeing it come around the bend and heading towards the Astoria bridge.

The Hanjin Paris, with all its containers, was headed to Portland, Oregon. 

On Saturday morning, we crossed over the Astoria bridge into Washington and went to Ilwaco's Saturday Market and ate lunch at Chico's Pizza in Long Beach.  We also visited (twice) a private membership RV park in Ilwaco called Safari Association. 

Approaching the bridge from the Oregon side.

Ilwaco Saturday Market

Entertainment at the Market.

All too soon, it was time to leave Astoria, the Oregon and Washington coasts, and head for home!

Manzanita, OR

Dave and I said a reluctant goodbye to our blogger friends, Sue and Doug, on Wednesday morning.  There's nothing like camping for five nights with new friends and getting to know them better!  We are already planning our next camping trip with Sue and Doug!

Sue and Doug's dog, Tucker, was all "tuckered out" by evening. 

Our site, #C46, at Nehalem Bay State Park in Manzanita.

Sue and Doug's site, #C43, was right across from our site.

Their orange Jeep Wrangler got a lot of attention, especially from Oregon State University Beaver fans!  Yes, it's orange!  Doug saw a cute tee-shirt that said, "I see orange people."

We hiked over the sand dunes to get to the beach from our campsite, but I didn't take my camera because of all the blowing sand.  Later we drove to town, Manzanita, where the beach is much more accessible.

 

Dave and I drove to Garibaldi to eat at Fisherman's Korner.  But, alas, it is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Our second choice was Pirate's Cove, just north of town, but there was road construction (actually it was tree-trimming) right where the restaurant was located and we didn't want to mess with the traffic.  So we ended up in Rockaway Beach, just north of Garibaldi.

Old Oregon Smokehouse advertised "the best clam chowder on the Oregon Coast", so we ate there.  I had a small cup of chowder and fish and chips, and Dave had chicken strips.  Their clam chowder was delicious, but without more taste testing, I can't say for sure that it was the best on the entire Oregon coast. 

On Wednesday morning, we drove the 45 miles from Manzanita to Astoria.  We'll be staying at Lewis and Clark Golf and RV Resort.  This afternoon, our friends, Tom and Cindi, arrived and are camping right next to us.  Let the fun continue!

Ecola State Park, Oregon Coast

Dave and I arrived at Nehalem Bay State Park around 12:30 on Friday, and fellow bloggersSue and Doug arrived at 2 pm.  We decided to forego a fire that night since it was windy and Sue and Doug were tired from their 9-hour journey from their home outside of Vancouver, BC  to the park . 

The weather pattern seems to be that mornings are overcast and the sun comes out around 1:30 pm.  We can live with that.  The wind, however, arrives along with the sunshine.  But it wouldn't be the beach without wind, right?

After a leisurely morning, we headed north along the coast to Ecola State Park in Cannon Beach.  The line of cars to enter the park was formidable, but we persevered.  Since we were camping at a state park, we didn't have to pay the day use fee for the park.  Doug drove us in their orange jeep so that their dog,Tucker could ride along in the back.  Thanks for doing the driving, Doug!

Sue, Doug, and Tucker at Ecola State Park.

This dog wore an "Oregon State Parks Volunteer" vest and sniffed his way along as his owner picked up trash.

From Ecola State Park, we were able to see Tillamook Rock lighthouse.  We later read a sign that said that the lighthouse is now privately owned and is used to store ashes of dead people.  Say what?!

Since Tucker couldn't run on the beach at Ecola, we drove to Tolovana Beach, just south of Cannon Beach.  I didn't get a picture of Tucker doing his gymnastic trick of rolling over on his back and landing on his feet, but trust me, he (literally) had a ball running and playing on the beach.

Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach

On the way back to Manzanita, we stopped at one of the pull-outs and I snapped this picture of Manzanita from Highway 101.

Later in the afternoon, Dave and I went for a 7-mile bike ride around the state park.  How many state parks have an airstrip?  This one does!  We rode out there and also to the lagoon beach.  We saw the horse camp, and rode through the A, B and C camping loop, and then the D, E, and F loop.  This park is BUSY this weekend, with one large group taking up most of the yurts and many of the camping sites in the A and B loops.  Lots of kids, lots of bicycles, and (it appears) lots of fun to be had!

Tonight we'll have our campfire with Sue and Doug and we hope that the wind dies down a bit by then!

Summer

It's off on another summer jaunt we go.  This time we are going to the Oregon Coast, specifically Nehalem Bay State Park, which is located south of Cannon Beach and north of Tillamook.  Dave and I are looking forward to meeting up with our Canadian blogger friends, Sue and Doug.  Then it's on to Astoria for a few days with our friends, the Freemans. 

Earlier in July, I took a couple of photos of some of our backyard flowers.

On Sunday, Dave and I went on an outing to Battle Ground Lake State Park, northeast of the growing city of Battle Ground, Washington.  It was a warm day, and we were looking for a shady place to take a walk.  We have a Discover Pass, so we didn't have to pay the $10/day fee that Washington now charges for the day use areas at its state parks.

Today we met son, Tim, and daughter-in-law, Kiersten, for lunch at Buffalo Gap in Portland.  Time for a few photos of our granddaughters!

Sophie, age 2

Anya, 5 months

Tim and Kiersten

If the cell signal is good at Nehalem Bay State Park, I'll post a blog or two from there!

Astoria Column and Ilwaco Fireworks

One item on my bucket list was to climb to the top of the Astoria Column,  all 164 steps.  On July 6, 2013, I did it!  The view from the top is spectacular, even on a cloudy day.  The column was built in 1926 and is Astoria's highest point.

See that deck at the top of the column?  I was there!

Views from the top:

The history of the area can be seen in the etchings along the column.  Click here to see a closer view of each of the scenes depicted.

The afternoon of July 6, we drove out to the Hammond Marina to look at boats. No ships came by, but I liked the looks of this sailboat.

In the evening of Saturday, July 6, the town of Ilwaco, Washington presented their fireworks.  It gave me another chance to practice my photography.

The Ilwaco marina when we first arrived.

Later in the evening.

As we left Astoria on Sunday morning, we noticed that the Queen of the West Sternwheeler that we had seen a week ago in Clarkston was now docked at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. 

We arrived back home on Sunday afternoon after a good three-week circle trip around Washington--Bothell, Marymount, Winthrop, Wenatchee, and Clarkston, and ending up in Astoria, Oregon.