Blogs from Astoria, Oregon, United States, North America - page 2

Having slept in a bed last night I thought I might not wake up early. To my surprise however, I was awake at the usual time and ready to get on my way…except I had to wait for the bike shop to open. So I ventured outside my motel room and across the street to a really nice wee diner. Again just like the movies. It was the first time I have eaten a "propper" breakfast in America so I was full of anticipation. I went all out and got pancakes, eggs, bacon and maple syrup YUM. I got chatting to the folks there who were really nice people and told them all about my ride and adventures only to find that when I came to pay the bill they had beaten me too it! I ... read more

Today marks 3 weeks on the road which is crazy. It just doesn seem that long, although when I look back I have covered quite a lot of distance and I have seen quite a lot of things on my way. I have however, lost track of what the of the week and what date it is. That tells me Ive been out of touch with civilisation for some time! I had a great ride today, despite being in fog for the majority of it. My legs and the bike are feeling great and the distance seemed to go by with no real trouble despite having three big climbs today. Although the fog did break up some as I went inland. So unfortunately I didn get a chance to see much. I did have my lunch ... read more

We drove down I-5 from Seattle, Washington to Portland, Oregon where we stopped for lunch. It was July 28, 2009 and we were on a three-day trip to the Oregon Coast. We were in the midst of a heat wave. Our temperature is usually in the mid-80's at the most; today it was 108 degrees in Portland. Our Alki Tours motor coach was filled with 54 excited passengers, plus Tyson, our tour manager, and Michael, our driver. After a three-hour drive from Seattle to Portland, it was time for a lunch stop. Tyson chose a neighborhood where the streets are filled with restaurants. It's known as the Northwest District and the intersection is NW Hoyt and NW 23rd Avenue. Most of us headed for the air-conditioning in the Ram's Head or Noah's Bagels. Fortunately, Portland has ... read more

And so we continued on our journey on ROUTE 101. We crossed the truss bridge from Washington State into ASTORIA. It takes forever to cross the ASTORIA BRIDGE which is the world's longest truss bridge. We spend a couple hours in Astoria. Try and find the ASTORIA COLUMN. The views are stunning. Just outside Astoria you will find FORT CLATSOP. Lewis & Clark camped there somewhere on their way in trekking west and so they now have this replica of what the fort looked like. It was actually quite interesting to walk around. They have lectures on how they produced/ made things in those days (leather, clothes, etc). It is something good to do if you have kids. And of course Oregon is just lined with forests everywhere. We just randomnly stopped and walked a 100 ... read more

Sunday, October 19, 2008 Today we started out earlier in order to have enough time to see more sights along the Oregon Coast, and make it to the Washington border by the end of the day. Well, 9:30 am was early for Kayla anyway. It was a beautiful day and luckily the fog had mostly lifted so we could enjoy the sights, as well as the sounds and smells of the sea. We stopped several times and took short walks, either along a pathway, or else the beach. Saw thousands of birds, either on their way south for the winter, or already here to spend the winter on warmer water. Pelicans, gulls, oyster catchers, and many others we couldn’t name. We have lots of video and photos of birds on rocks. Richard perfected his video technique ... read more