Astoria

Site #17 at Brookhollow RV Park.  We love the paved roads and concrete pads with trees and grass between each site.

Today we crossed into Oregon to drive along the southern shore of the Columbia River.  Logging is big business in both Washington and Oregon.  When we were driving the detour at Olympic N.P. every third or fourth truck was a logging truck filled with huge logs.  Now in Southern Washington, we still see the log trucks.   

In this part of Washington, we found another part of the logging process.    Because this location is on the Columbia River, I wonder if the logs will be sent somewhere else.

The Columbia River separates Oregon from Washington.  Astoria is in Oregon.

Before Astoria was founded, Lewis and Clark wintered here following their 18 month Corps of Discovery Expedition from St. Louis, Missouri.   They had traveled 4000 miles to find the most direct route to the Pacific Ocean.    A fort was built to house the men during the winter.

The fort was named Fort Clatsop after the Native American tribe living in the area.

Though not original, this was rebuilt as near to recorded information as possible.

The trail to the fort and to the water was a pleasant walk through large trees.

This Newfoundland is named Deacon.  He visits the fort with his dad who is a volunteer at the fort.  Meriwether Lewis had a Newfoundland named Seamus who accompanied the expedition the entire 4000 miles.  

This is the Astoria-Megler Bridge.  It is 4.1 miles long.  It is the longest continuous truss bridge in the United States.  We crossed this bridge after we left Astoria and then we drove the north shore of the Columbia back to the campground.  The Columbia River is a beautiful river.  Its headwaters is in British Columbia and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Astoria.        

This is the Astoria Column.  It sits above Astoria.   The president of the Great Northern Railroad was the driving force behind erecting 12 historical markers in the early 1900s between St. Paul, Minnesota and Astoria, Oregon.  This one in Astoria commemorates history of the northwest territories.

You could climb 164 steps to the top for a beautiful view of the city and river.  Carol and I chose to take pictures of the beautiful view of the city and river from the base of the column.

Astoria from the column.

Columbia River from the column.

The Columbia River is a water highway that brings international commerce to the United States.

We ate lunch at Mo's.  Carol had a combination plate of shrimp, fish, and clams.  I stepped out of my comfort zone and had fish and chips and a cup of Mo's famous clam chowder.  It was good.

After lunch we walked downtown to the historic business district.

Like Port Townsend, the buildings downtown dated back to the 1800's.  This movie theater was interesting.

We enjoyed the Columbia River Maritime Museum.   The many displays inside the museum help us to know more about the Columbia River and other aspects of industry involving water.  There were displays about the WWII destroyers that were built in this part of the country and the part the ships played in the war.  One of the displays I found very moving was about a project that returns objects taken by American soldiers from Japanese soldiers who died in battle.  When a Japanese soldier went to war, he carried a small Japanese flag with him that had words of encouragement written on it from his family and friends.  These flags were often taken by American soldiers as souvenirs.  Now many years later, an organization is receiving these flags from Americans, tracing them back to the family of the Japanese soldier who died, and returning the flag to those families.  A short movie clip showed a Japanese man receiving his brother's flag and the emotion he had as he received this flag that had been his brothers.  

Old docks become resting places for the many gulls in the river edge.

Carol taking a picture of the blade of a ship.

This boat belongs to a bar pilot.  A bar pilot boards all ships coming into the Columbia River harbor from the Pacific Ocean and pilots that ship over the sandbars at the mouth of the Columbia River into safer waters.  At the back of this boat is the small boat that the bar pilot uses to get close to the ship.  He leaves the small boat and boards the ship on a rope ladder hung on the side of the ship.    It is very difficult to become a bar pilot because he has to memorize every part of the Columbia River channel (depths, current, landmarks, etc) and be able to draw a map of the channel from memory.

One of the many ships in the Columbia River headed for the Pacific Ocean.

We got back to camp about five o-clock.  A pile of laundry needed to be done so I did that while Carol cleaned motorhome windows.  We loaded the car on the dolly.  We have a 375-mile drive to the redwoods tomorrow so we need to get on the road early.  We will say goodbye to Washington.   It is a beautiful and diverse state.