Beach Adventure

It's amazing how much ground two sisters can cover in 2 days.  :-)  My younger sister Denise's husband and son are on a trip to Antarctia, so she asked me if I wanted to make a quick jaunt to the coast, heck yes!  I started out here in Corbett, drove through an ice storm to pick up my sister in Portland.  

This is what it looked like in the gorge as I headed out, but warmed as I headed into Portland..

Such contrast.. from ice to this Witch Hazel in bloom in front of a Meriwether's, a restaurant that was too crowded for us to have lunch, so we continued towards the coast and looked for a fun place to dine.

When we got to St. Helens we veered off the highway to see what we could find in old town.. here is their very cute restored theater.

We found the Klondike Restaurant & Bar in old town.  I tried a cup of clam chowder and it was good.. had some halibut fish and home made "chips", too.  Yum.

Fortified, we headed on.. we arrived in Astoria next and headed over this bridge to Washington State where we forged on to our destination, Long Beach peninsula.  Astoria is a wonderful historic place and where all the ships enter the Columbia River.  It's bar is one of the most dangerous in the world.  The river was choppy and angry looking on this stormy day.

We arrived at our destination, Long Beach, and found our hotel and checked in.  We stayed at the Adrift Hotel.  It was interesting with an "industrial green" vibe.  Exposed ducting and electrical pipes, the room had wooden crates for side tables.. :-)

We drove out through that arch all the way to the beach, but it was so stormy and rainy I couldn't get a pleasing shot of the ocean.  On the side of the road out there were a group of seagulls who seem to be tired of the weather, too.  :-)

My sister checked Yelp for the best place to eat dinner and made reservations here at The Depot - which is an old train station.  What a cozy place to have a meal!

Now, my dear readers.... we both ordered the same thing, and may be the best dinner I've had lately.  The steak was flavorful and tender, the potatoes tender and perfectly done and the veggies were all fresh and done to perfection.
Filet Provence: Chef’s Special Cut Chargrilled prime grass fed, hormone free 7 oz Filet Mignon topped with a Truffle Scented Garlic Butter accompanied by Potato Gratin.

When the desserts were listed verbally by the hostess, and they were all specially made by the chef/owner, we had to split one.  It is chocolate Pot de Crème with Italian Amarena cherries.  If you've never had one of these cherries, you must get some.  There were 3 more cherries on the bottom of the rich chocolate pudding.  Oh my.

Denise and I went back to the hotel and watch the Academy Awards.  The next morning we packed right up and checked out.  Here is a fun "chandelier" of Edison bulbs at the front counter.  Edison bulbs are the new trend it seems.

Our DIL Kristi had recommended this bakery to us - the Cottage Bakery & Delicatessen. Oh my.  Such a huge array of items!

They had cookies of all sorts, pies, muffins, doughnuts.. it was quite amazing.

Not just maple bars, but chocolate drizzled ones and chocolate covered ones and cream filled ones!  

On our way out of town we snapped a photo of our wonderful little restaurant discovery.

We then began a day of adventuring.  We headed to Cape Disappointment State Park - a Washington park.  It was aptly named as there were two lighthouses there but it was too stormy and rainy to hike out to them so I have no photos.  WAH!  But the forest was pretty.

History

In 1788, while in search of the Columbia River, English Captain John Meares missed the passage over the river bar and named the nearby headland Cape Disappointment for his failure in finding the river. In 1792, American Captain Robert Gray successfully crossed the river bar and named the river “Columbia” after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. Only a few years later, in 1805, the Lewis and Clark Expedition arrived at Cape Disappointment

The Cape Disappointment Lighthouse was constructed in 1856 to warn seamen of the treacherous river bar known by then as “the graveyard of the Pacific.” This is the oldest functioning lighthouse on the West Coast.

Looking out to sea, past those trees.

This is a photo of one of the lighthouses that I found on google.

We then headed back to the bridge and to Astoria, Oregon.  First stop was the Astoria column.. It's a wonderful place, high on a tall hill, overlooking the Columbia River, the bridge over the river, the town and countryside.  The history of Oregon starts at the bottom and spirals around to the top.  

Here is one section, I didn't want to over burden you by showing you more sections, but if you're interested you can read all the history of the images HERE.

You can climb all the way to the top and come out to view the surroundings even further.

Also on the site of the column is this concrete replica of an Indian burial canoe, which was erected in 1961 as a memorial to Chief Comcomly of the Chinook tribe.

To the left of the canoe is a wonderful view looking up the Columbia River -- pardon the poor clarity of the photo.. but this is Oregon, you know.  :-)

As we descended Coxcomb Hill we drove through the neighborhoods to see the wonderful historic Victorian era homes.  Ohhh how I wish I could buy this house and fix it up.  And this is the BACK side!  The front overlooks the Columbia River.  It has many beautiful stained glass windows.  It makes me sick to see a home like this being allowed by it's owners to disintegrate to the point it needs to be razed.

Now this house is loved.

Here is a great river pilot boat on display in the parking lot of the Maritime Museum.  The bar in the river is so dangerous that each boat needs to be escorted in or out by a boat like this.

We then departed Astoria and headed across the bridge over the river and headed south to Seaside where we drove down main street to the "turnaround" at the "prom" (promenade, a walkway all along the beach in this town.  There is a great bronze sculpture of Lewis & Clark who led the Journey of Discovery.  To learn more about the trek, click HERE.

We decided to have a nice lunch in Cannon Beach as we'd had small breakfasts.  We got a nice window booth at the Wayfarer restaurant.  It was raining so the photo of Haystack Rock didn't turn out too good.  :-)

Then, amazingly, it dried out a bit on the window and we got this shot of a lovely green rock.

The ocean is beautiful at this moment.

I almost did not show you my lunch because it's obviously not on the healthy side.. but we had a salad first and I brought a lot of it home.. but it was soooo good.  HUGE beer batter prawns which were delicious.  

After we left the restaurant I got this shot that is not through a window.  Pretty, huh?

We then headed downtown Cannon Beach which is a super fun town full of art galleries, specialty shops, antique shops, bistros, pubs, cafes, etc.  We jaunted through this antique shop but I was good and did not buy the barley twist oak antique candlesticks that I've been wanting for 30 years.  We then went to the bakery there so I could bring home some Florentine cookies for the kids and a loaf of haystack bread and a maple bar for Dayle.

We had a nice dry drive home, lots of chatting and we made a HUGE loop if you follow that on the map at the top.  After I dropped off my sister I plunged into the traffic at just 10 minutes until 5 pm.  I amazingly made it through fairly easy, yay~  While I was at a slowdown on the Marquam Bridge I snapped this shot of my beloved downtown Portland.

Well.. if you've made it to the bottom of this epistle, you get a gold star.  I hope you enjoyed coming along on our little trip!!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)