Astoria, Oregon to Eugene, Oregon, September 19 - 25

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THE BASICS

We have found Oregon really interesting. We traveled down the beautiful coast from Astoria to Tillamook to Newport (overnight stays), and then from Florence headed inland to Eugene, which is a really neat city.

THE FLUFF

After the relief of getting the blog published, thanks to a coffee shop internet, we spent several hours at the Pacific Maritime Museum in Astoria. It is a wonderful museum with extensive information about "The Bar" - when the wide Columbia River pours into the Pacific Ocean, there can be great turbulence "crossing the bar", the shifting sandbar which the Columbia dumps at its mouth. Bar pilots and river pilots are highly trained, and guide ships through the dangers. But Astoria developed where it is as a fur trading post owned by John Jacob Astor.

Next to the museum, you can ride the Astoria Seaside Trolley along the waterfront, with lively commentary from volunteers, e.g. the first theater where Clark Gable performed, the school where Kindergarten Cop was filmed, and above all, the Goonies house.

We started the next day, another overcast ("marine layer") day, by touring Fort Clatsop, where the Lewis and Clark expedition spent much of a winter. When they reached the Pacific Coast in Washington, they decided to cross the Columbia to Oregon. The seaside was harsh, so they found a spot a few miles inland and built a fort. A facsimile fort has since been built, and it is astonishing to see what small quarters the expedition fit into. They had about eleven days that winter when it did not rain. But they spent their time productively; journals, maps, etc.

Back in town, we toured the Flavel House, a lovely Victorian home on one of the steep hills of Astoria. Mr. Flavel had his hand in almost everything in the city, and his wife and daughters thoroughly decorated the house, socialized, read books to each other, traveled to Europe, etc.

After struggling with the wifi at the Library for hours, we retreated to "our" coffee shop and spent internet time there easily.

Next day, we visited Fort Stevens, which is right on the coast and part of the State Park where we were camping. It was active from the Civil War through World War II.

Then we headed on down the coast. It is astonishing to me how many campgrounds there are on the Oregon Coast - they seemed to each be no more than ten miles apart. We did go through one state forest where suddenly we were high above the ocean on a cliffside - grr! But then we would come to a nice little touristy treasure of a town, like Seaside and Cannon Beach, at sea level and busy on the weekend - apparently people out here don't let the overcast skies interfere with their plans. It is a less than two hour drive from many spots along the coast to Portland, so the seaside is a fine weekend option.

We camped at a nice campground south of Tillamook. And the next day, a Saturday, was suddenly sunny all day. First we visited the Tillamook Naval Air Museum, which is the largest wood-framed building in the country. It arches very high overhead. Now it houses a collection of all sorts of military planes, many of them rare, which is much appreciated by those who know about them. This was built as a hangar for nine blimps, which served ships in the Pacific during WW II. The story of its construction was fascinating - there is abundant wood in Oregon, and since in wartime all the steel went to ships and planes, etc., they had to build it of wood.

Our next visit was to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, a very popular tourist destination. Partly because before you leave, it is nearly impossible to resist buying a cone or dish of Tillamook ice cream. We didn't actually get to see cheese being made; we only saw the huge blocks being cut and packaged on assembly lines that looked mind-numbing.

The next day, we headed on down the coast to Newport, stopping en route to sit on a beach, try to stay warm, watch kids in swimming suits playing in tide pools. We had not missed TV, but I did want the cable hookup that night to watch some of the Emmys and the Patriots game, so John found an RV campground at a marina just over the beautiful bridge in Newport. A chatty neighbor told us we had to have beer and burgers at the Rogue Brewery, so we ended up back across the bridge in the Bayfront area. John insists that his Kobe burger was good enough to be worth twice as much as mine. Whatever. We were sad when the Patriots lost, but since we rarely go out late in an evening, it was a fun night for us.

We were busy in Newport the next day. Isn't Oil Can Henrys a great name for an oil change place? AND WE BOUGHT A MODEM!!!!! Now we can get internet anywhere we get cell phone service! (Verizon) I think people had suggested this to us for years, but it finally sank in and we did it! We walked around the Nye Beach area, an older seaside part of town, postponing our trip to Yaquina Head Lighthouse until the sun peeked through. And it finally did. The Lighthouse is another careful restoration tended by volunteers, accompanied by a huge BLM center with abundant displays, videos, etc. We went back to Bayfront, and watched the active fishing operations, as well as the sea lions whose barking we had heard all the time across the bay at our marina.

We had often discussed whether or not we should visit Portland, but we simply were not drawn there. So we continued on down the coast, driving separately, to Florence. More gorgeous scenery along the way - there are large, highly photogenic, rock piles just off the coast. The waves are all vigorous whitecaps - not huge swells, but plenty lively looking. To my surprise, John had decided that he missed me in the RV passenger seat, so he suggested we head inland from Florence to Eugene. And I wanted to test the modem, so I suggested we park in a Walmart that night and use it - and it worked! In the late afternoon, though, we first drove into Eugene near the university and went for a nice walk. Lovely campus. Mostly brick buildings. There is a long, car-less, wide walkway past the classroom buildings. Lovely. And there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of bicycles parked along the way. We drove back a little way into the downtown area and found a nice coffee shop where we could sit in the warm sun and stare at the passersby, including a squirrel who was adept at playing "dodge car."

And now we have to decide what route we will take down to and in California. That is a challenge, but a wonderful one.

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