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.