Astoria, Oregon

On Monday we rolled north 37 miles to Fort Stevens State Park, and were all set up by early afternoon yesterday. The weather had turned semi-sunny, so we thought we sit and soak up the rays as we hadn't seen the sun for several days and were feeling a bit mossy. The campground here is huge, over 400 spaces, but you'd never know it. The loops and sites are well spaced, and the park personnel have smooth systems in place. The Oregon parks have all gone to a new registration system that requires you to register as you come into the park, not after you've selected a space, though some will let you drive through and then come back to the office and register. No self registration makes it not only awkward, but means more staff time is being used. We'll see how long it lasts. We do like this park as a home base for exploring the area, as there's so much to do. Nearby Astoria has a multitude of museum, restaurants, shops and vistas to explore. Then there's Fort Clatsop, and the salt works, and the Columbia River Maritime Museum, not to mention all the pubs and restaurants that have live music in the evenings, and the art galleries, and, . . .  well you get the idea, there's a lot to do here.

Tuesday we woke up to rain, again, so decided it would be a good time to explore Astoria and leave the fort until tomorrow when the whether is predicted to be nicer. Astoria is the oldest American settlement on this side of the Rockies so there are a number of historic and scenic sites to explore right in the middle of town. Many of the beautiful Victoria homes are now doing duty as bed and breakfasts, offices, restaurants or business. Most are in very good shape and make for some great photo opportunities. The city and the smaller surrounding towns have done a great job of marketing their offerings, and there are brochures available at the park and all the hotels to point people to the seasonal festivals and special events, in addition to the permanent displays and historic sites.

We started at the top of town and worked our way down....
It's a steep drive up to the column from the middle of town, but worth it for the view and the information available on the many plaques around the parking area. Built in 1926, the column it is 125 feet tall, and is covered with scenes depicting the settlement of the northwest. Other historic markers are arranged around the viewing area, which offers views of the river as well as the ocean.


After leaving the column we stopped at the Clatsop County Heritage Museum, housed in a beautiful building that was originally city hall, built in1904. There are some strong points here but also some deficits. There's a lot of information - newspaper articles, quotes from journals, etc. . . . very informative, but a LOT of reading. The Native America displays were also long on reading and short on artifacts, so a little overwhelming after awhile. At least the 4$ entry fee wasn't exorbitant.

Next we visited the film museum Oregon Film Museum, housed in the old county jail. Over 300 movies have been filmed in Oregon, many in this area. In June the city of Astoria hosted the 25th anniversary of the filming of the movie The Goonies, and launched the museum. Unfortunately for those of us who were doing other things when The Goonies came out in 1985 the film museum doesn't pay much attention to any of the other movies, like Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, Short Circuit, and others. The admission here was also $4, which we thought was a bit excessive considering the minimal offerings of the museum. If you are a collector of old jails that aspect is fun too - but it's really small, and there wasn't any attention given to any particular interesting fact related to to the jail building or it's former residents. Mark this one as "disappointing".

On the way back to our campsite we had what Steve described as "the best quilt shopping experience" he's ever had. That might be because the Wet Dog, home of the Astoria Brewing Co., was right around the corner from Homespun Quilt, where I bought a new part for my machine and a bit of fabric. It's a nice shop, especially if you are looking for nautical-themed fabric. After completing my purchases I joined him at the Wet Dog for a brew and some crab cakes. Good stuff all the way around, and the sauce served with the crab cakes was great! As soon as we figure out how to duplicate it we'll have that posted to our recipe site.

Astoria is an important port, and welcomes both commercial and cruise ships. Today we had a chance to see the  cruise ship Oosterdam. The ship is huge, carrying over 1900 passengers, and is quite striking when docked in the harbor near all the smaller craft. Here you can compare it not only to the private craft in the foreground, but the large fishing boat passing behind it, on the right.

Back in camp Molly and I took a short walk, then we all  relaxed and watched the sun set. Tomorrow we'll visit the fort.  There are a few more photos here.