Heading Back from Astoria

     The up side to hotels on the Oregon coast is that they don't usually need air conditioning. Our room was on the ground floor but the setting sun shined in our window and the room got pretty warm. We left the windows open and slept that way overnight. That was all well and good until the guys in the room next to us decided to get up and go fishing at 5:00 am!! They had their boat parked in one spot and their big diesel pickup truck in another, both outside our window. The guys decided to dump and refill their ice chest and took about 30 minutes banging and clattering around to hook up their boat. Finally they left but we were pretty much awake by then. Arrrggghhh!!!

      As you can see from the photo above, some pretty big ships navigate the Columbia River. There were four of the tanker vessels tied up to mooring buoys in the channel. I found out that they were waiting on their slip to become available in Portland. The city of Astoria allows them to tie up free of charge while they wait. It was fun to watch these big ships swing around as the river currents and tides changed.

     We drove across the Astoria Megler Bridge and went into Washington state. Here we found a promontory where Lewis & Clark had been but had turned back because of winds and rough waters.

     We went out (via a short hiking trail) to this lighthouse at Cape Disappointment. It was manned by a Coast Guard seaman who watched the mouth of the Columbia for vessels in trouble or hazards in the shipping channel.

     Along the way is the Coast Guard station that is tasked with rescues of mariners in trouble in this area. I read that they perform an average of 400 rescues per year! Think about it, that's more than one per day!

Just one little cove along the trail

     Upon returning, we just drove along the docks and saw this big ship loading up logs. It amazed us the amount of trees on just this ship. We assume it is headed to Portland for processing at a lumber mill.

     We saw these and couldn't resist a picture. These are public trash bins along the main street in Astoria. Each one looked like a different fish can. Cute!

     For the Goonies fans out there:  here is Haystack rock on Cannon Beach. If you've seen the movie, you know the scene.

     On the drive home, we passed a clam farm and restaurant. These are mounds of clam shells that will be processed and serve as breeding bedding for future generations. That's a lot of clams!!