DH and I were planning a short getaway to Ashland, OR to see some plays with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and swinging by Crater Lake on the way home. It’s about a 5 hour drive to Ashland. Two hours from there to Crater Lake, and two hours back to the interstate highway, and then several more hours home. Well. There was no lodging available at Crater Lake, so that would be a day trip, 2 hours plus 2 hours back to the freeway. And there was a big wildfire in that area (Evans Creek) that I was monitoring while making plans. So we changed our minds. Someday I’ll see Crater Lake, but not this year.
We went to Astoria, Oregon for a couple days last week instead. Portland was socked in with wildfire smoke, but the air quality at the coast was much better. Astoria is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. It’s the end of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
We stayed at the Cannery Pier Hotel for two nights. The hotel is 600 feet out into the river on an old cannery pier, near the Astoria-Megler Bridge. All the rooms have a view of the river. I loved watching the ship traffic from the window seat.
Ships move at night, too! They’re escorted over the treacherous Columbia River Bar by the Columbia River Bar Pilots, from the ocean to just past Astoria. Everything is carefully timed.
I’ve been to Astoria several times, but I had never taken the time to see the Astoria Column. Set on Coxcomb Hill, it features a spiraling mural of the history of the region up through the arrival of the railroad in 1893. It recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Phil had never seen the Peter Iredale, the remains of a shipwreck from October 1906. It’s at Fort Stevens State Park.
This is all that’s left, just part of the iron frame.
Proof we were here!
We returned through town and drove over the bridge (4.1 miles across!) on our way to Cape Disappointment. We wanted to see the lighthouse there. I had forgotten that there are two lighthouses at Cape Disappointment, the road our map gave us was not accessible to cars.
You can imagine how we felt.
The other lighthouse is the North Head Lighthouse, and you can access it by car through the park. We were a little low on gas, so we decided not to go looking for it, but here’s a picture of the Cape Disappointment Light from Waikiki Beach (yes, that really is the name), from my camping trip in 2023.
This was our one full day in Astoria, so we wanted to get back for happy hour/dinner at Fedé, which we read about in the NYTimes. We walked down the Riverwalk and arrived at 4 pm, which put us on the waitlist for 5 pm. We went down the street to enjoy a beer at Astoria Brewing. The deck overlooks the river, and there were bubbles to amuse the passersby.
Dinner was excellent. We shared two entrées because it’s more fun to taste more things.
On our last morning in Astoria, we visited the Hanthorn Cannery Museum, which was a Bumble Bee cannery. Salmon canneries were big business in the 20th century in Astoria! I worked summers at a salmon cannery on Kodiak Island, Alaska, so this was interesting to me.
We packed 20 pounds of salmon roe in boxes like these. I was an egghouse girl; I can identify 5 different species of salmon eggs, but I can’t tell you what the outside of the fish looked like!
We decided to drive down the coast before heading for home. One of my favorite beach walks is in Cannon Beach. Not at Haystack Rock; there are too many people.
It’s a two mile round trip to Silver Point from Tolovana Park at the southern end of Cannon Beach. Much quieter down at that end of the town.
It was a fun getaway! Now I’m at home, working on the project I started in Astoria.
I’ve cast on 3 more times since this bit of knitting, but I think it’s now on its way. Famous last words?
PDXKnitterati 