Fort Clatsop

 I fell asleep believing that it would be our last night in Fort Stevens, when we awoke James looked at the calendar and declared that we did in fact have ONE MORE DAY!! Joy like no other crept into our entire day knowing that we have one more day to explore.

To celebrate our bonus day we enjoyed a fabulous breakfast at McMenamins

https://www.mcmenamins.com/gearhart-hotel/sand-trap-pub

Danny and I enjoyed the Vanilla Bean French toast and James got their egg breakfast with bacon.

Our true adventure for the day was Fort Clatsop. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Clatsop

Throughout our tour of the Pacific Northwest, we kept seeing signs for the Lewis and Clark Trail. For anyone who may not remember their US History, Lewis and Clark were the explorers who Thomas Jefferson commissioned to explore the west to see if a water shipping route could be established across the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition

The expedition had to pause near the Astoria area (before it was Astoria) for the winter, and the group built Fort Clatsop. We arrived at the perfect time as the docents were just beginning their presentations. Our first one was about the expedition and their weapon of choice the hunting rifle. Danny was fascinated and the Ranger showed us how the weapon was loaded and gave a firing demonstration, which was totally cool.

Then we had a chance to explore the museum which was filled with details about the expedition and had a special display for York, the slave who proved to have a vital role in the expedition. There is an awesome kids book that we picked up along our travels that tells all about his contributions to the expedition. Sadly, in the official record, he was left out because he was a slave. :( 

https://bookshop.org/books/the-journey-of-york-the-unsung-hero-of-the-lewis-and-clark-expedition/9781543512823

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_(explorer)

If you are ever in Astoria, I highly recommend checking out Fort Clatsop

Hat made from inner cedar bark, check out the awesome whale and canoe that was woven in

Display for York

Checking out the living quarters at the Fort

Examples of Dress uniform

Super cool belt, the blue beads were a high value item, and we heard a story that a beautiful blue bead dress that belonged to Sacagawea was used as trade for two otter capes for the officers. Out of this trade she was apparently given a blue wool cape.

Checking out Netul Landing

For lunch we headed to a restaurant called Ship Out

https://www.facebook.com/ShipOutinc

I thought it was some of the best fish and chips I had enjoyed so far on the trip. Danny was fish and chipped out and opted for a cheese burger instead. 

After such an awesome morning adventure, Danny opted for more beach time so we headed to the Fort Stevens Beach where I spent the afternoon reading my book and Danny playing (and James supervising as Danny wanted to play further down the beach).

Danny did not love this beach as much as Ecola, unfortunately, Cannon Beach at Ecola State Park was just too far. (For those folks who may be interested in following our path, from Astoria it takes about an hour to get to Ecola State Park, because of the traffic through Seaside)

There is a bald eagle atop this tall post

After the heat wave on Sunday, I wondered if Oregon would be cold again. I was excited that as the afternoon wore on, the temperature dropped to feeling down right chilly and I was happy to wrap up in a blanket. 

I also finished reading Wild, and wow was it a great book. It was the perfect book to read while taking a Pacific Northwest trip. 

We returned to camp and Danny finally found a friend that he spent the rest of the afternoon playing with, as an added bonus she also was a Lord of the Rings. 

Goonies and Middle Earth have officially infiltrated our lives, and James and I could not be more proud! Orcs and Goblins beware, our sometimes Hobbit, sometimes Elf, is bravely doing battle. 

Tomorrow we move on to Waldport, OR

Astoria Tower, Zip Line, and Fort Stevens

We all slept well last night. Kiara curled up at my feet in the wee hours of the morning, I hardly noticed. Danny woke up at 5:30 but curled up between James and I and was quickly fell back to sleep. I decided to get up a little after 7 and started to put the dishes away from the night before.

The real world met our vacation world today when we had to pause vacation world and attend to a follow up Zoom meeting as Danny will be resuming OT therapy in August, AND James had to check in with work briefly. Our online work completed, we headed into Astoria. 

The more I visit this town, the more I really like it. We headed to Astoria Brewing for a scrumptious lunch. Danny got a cheeseburger, I got a fresh wrap sandwich with veggies and locally caught smoked salmon, and James also got a burger. I splurged and also tried their cranberry cider, which complimented my fresh wrap amazingly.

 https://astoriabrewingcompany.com/

After lunch we headed up the to the Astoria tower. This tower is visible from the bridge and we had missed it on our last trip here. The tower is decorated with panels celebrating the commemoration of the town. “The Astoria Column was completed in 1926 by the Great Northern Railroad and Vincent Astor, the great grandson of John Jacob Astor, who founded Astoria. The Column is a historical monument which depicts the discovery and settlement of the Columbia River until the arrival of the railway. In 1988, Friends of the Astoria Column was founded to advance the cause of restoring and preserving the historically important settlement structure which had been severely damaged by time and weather….” Friends of the Astoria Column Plaque on the lower level.

 

Inside View

James and Danny had an appointment at High Life Adventures Zip Line Tours, so we bid farewell to the impressive views and tower and drove to the Zip Line. Unfortunately they had a strict no pet policy, so the girls and I dropped the boys off and we went on our own adventure.

 

The girls and I first opted to return to our campsite so we could drop off the laptops and other electronics that would not been required for the rest of the day and the girls needed a walk.

 The girls and I went exploring. There also was a ship wreck on the beach, which people were climbing all over. Kiara was wigged out by the remaining iron bones that stuck up from the sand.

So we moved on and checked out the battery and the military base. 

 I was curious to see what else was at Fort Stevens as this is one of the largest campgrounds I have ever visited. It also holds a military fort that saw action during World War II when on Sunday night, June 21, 1942, a Japanese Submarine surfaced close to the beach and shelled Fort Stevens.

Then I got a text from James to bring a towel, apparently on one of the zips over, his butt got wet. 

So back to camp we went for dry clothes and a towel.

The rest of the evening was low key. Opting instead to eat at camp instead of out, making a campfire and roasting some marshmallows with gourmet chocolate (THANK YOU KATIE O,.!!)

 Tomorrow we are hoping to squeeze in one last adventure and check out Fort Clatsop.

Goonies Never Say Die!

 When I was in the fifth grade, I saw one of the best movies, like ever. It was called Goonies. If you have not seen this movie, and you have kids that are age 7 and up and you don’t mind some salty language, then go enjoy.

Danny really wanted to explore the campground and with strict instructions to stay within our loop, he did for the most part, until he was following a path that led to another path and before he knew it, he was lost. Back at camp, we were just getting ready to head out for the days adventures, and I called out to him time to come back, except, I no longer could hear him. I grabbed the dogs, hoping that he might have wandered over to the playground or found kids nearby I started to walk our loop. No Danny.

The dogs and I quickly headed back to our campsite and James got in the truck and started looking. Within five minutes he had found him, lost in the loop next to ours.

Danny had been wise and had told another parent that he had lost his way, and they had connected him with a passing ranger. Who was just about to call us when James showed up.

It has a merry ending, but it was a valuable lesson for Danny.

As my blood pressure settled, we finally took off for Astoria. 

The Oregon Film Museum honors primarily Goonies, but it also features Kindergarten Cop and Twilight.  The museum is located in the original county Jail, whose history is long lost as the County Jail was used at the beginning of Goonies for the jail break.

ORV?!?! Bullet holes the size of matzah balls!!!

That's my mom's favorite piece!

The original county jail that now serves as the Oregon Film Museum, where the Fratelli's broke Jake out of Jail.

We then headed over to the Maritime Museum which was absolutely fabulous This museum had it all, hands on activities and exhibits for kids to experience but also informative exhibits for grown ups and kids of all ages to learn about. Danny’s favorite exhibit was an interactive Tugboat that had all kinds of levers and buttons to push to “steer” the pilot boat. (A pilot boat helps guide the larger container ships through the Astoria Channel as there are a multitude of sandbars where many ships have become stuck or wrecked over the last 200 or so years.

 My favorite exhibit was about the Coastguard and how they made tough choices during a rescue and how they reviewed all available options.

We left the museum lunch at Rogue Brewery (if you have not had their beer or cider it is FABULOUS!) Only draw back was that they were very short staffed but their food and beer was worth the wait.

Danny and I returned to the museum and finished exploring all of the exhibits and the ship docked outside. 

James swung by and picked us up, unfortunately what we did not realize is that even though the maps said that Ecola State Park was just a half hour away, in reality it is an hour away because the traffic through the town of Seaside is terrible. There are a few pesky traffic lights right on 101 that s..l..o..w.. every thing down to a crawl for 20 minutes!!

By the time we arrived at Ecola, it was nearly 4:30. We all enjoyed walking along the beach despite the tide being up. We then returned to the car and drove over to the look out and saw the iconic beach where the Lighthouse Restaurant scenes were filmed. The Restaurant no longer stands there but you can see the beautiful beach below with the two rocks that line up in Mikey’s Dabloon.

Around 6:00 we began the trek back to Fort Stevens and it was 6:40 by the time we pulled up to camp. Better, but traffic back home was still s…l…o…w

We made a hasty dinner and watched a little bit of Fellowship of the Ring before lights out for Danny.

Tomorrow Danny and James will get to check out a ropes course and I will be hanging with the dogs since there is not really a doggie day care here.