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.