We are on our way again. The two weeks in Whaler's went by so fast. I am sure glad we got to stay there two weeks before moving again. I was great seeing Matt and Stephanie and Cousin Bob and Carol. But, now we are on the road again for two weeks in Seaside!
Terry is terrible about stopping, for whatever reason, when he gets on the road. But with "encouragement" from the others, we stopped at the
Tillamuck Cheese Factory. They were busy packaging cheese, which we were able to watch from big windows. We all got "squeaky" cheese to eat on our way to Seaside.
We were lucky again and got spots next to each other, Bob and us on one side . . .
. . . and Ron across the street, with the best spot as usual! We always give each other a bad time about who got the "best camping site."
I had to put this picture in because if any of Ron and Alice's kids look at this BLOG, they can see this big smile on their Mom's face and know she is having a great time!
Some friends, Larry and Elaine, of my brother Bill have been coming to Hell's Canyon with him every year for forever and they have become like family to us. Larry was raised in Seaside and inherited the old family home. Last year they tore down the old house and built a new one. It is very nice. Here we are with thin in front of the house. It is really a nice home! They will just use it as their vacation home for now.
One of our first days we went up to Astoria. It is built right at the mouth of the Columbia River and has quite a history.
Terry, Alice, and I took a tour of the "
Flavel" house. It belonged to one of the first people who lived in Astoria. He started a bar pilot business guiding ships in the Columbia River. At one time he was the richest man in the area and he built this house. It has since been donated to the City as a historical site. It was amazing to go through it. I really think that I could live in those times with the horse and carriage and long skirts.
Terry and I rode our bikes a lot. The grocery store was even close enough for us to ride to. We could handle two sacks
apiece--one on each side of our handlebars. One of the funnest places to ride was down on the Promenade. It was a mile and a half of cement walkway right along the ocean on one side and the little stores or beach houses on the other. We even saw some whales one day, blowing out water.
There were swing sets every once in a while along the Promenade. We stopped to watch the water for a while.
My brother, Bill, came from Boring for the weekend. One day we took a ride to Astoria with
him. We went across this bridge. It is 1 1/4 miles long. Twenty years ago when we drove across it with our kids, there was a toll charge on it. We paid a toll and drove across, then turned around, paid a toll, and drove back across it. We had pretty cheap entertainment back then. There is no toll on it today. The bridge was paid for in the 1990's and they took off the toll charge.
There is a tall monument on a
hill above Astoria. We
climbed it, also, two years ago with the kids. We climbed it again with Bill.
Terry is not sure he wants to go that high! He says, "It's sure a long ways up there!"
As you can see, it is a long way up! There were about 156 steps to the top and there is only room enough for a skinny
spiral staircase. When you met someone coming down, you has to squeeze over to the side to make room for them. So, with Terry being kind of
claustrophobic, besides not liking heights, I was surprised he
climbed up the tower!
Well, here he is looking out the door. He said, "Whoa, this is as far as I am going!" And he headed straight back down the stairs! I must admit that it took a little courage to step out on that narrow balcony. I couldn't imagine how I ever took our six kids up there and let them out on it. I was gripping the railing most of the time I was up there.
It didn't take Terry too long to get to the bottom. If you can see that small speck of red, that is him, without zooming in on the camera. Bill threw him down a quarter and it looked like it just floated to the bottom.
Thank goodness there was a nice railing around the little walkway at the top of the tower.
There were great photo shots from the top of the tower!
These are the big freighter ships waiting for their turn to go north to where they get their loads.
This huge anchor is in the parking area of the Maritime Museum. It must have been a huge ship that used it!
This bell was out by the anchor. I wanted to ring it but Terry wouldn't let me. He said it would probably bring out the Coastguard or something. Right after that, some kids went over to it and rang the heck out of it and nothing happened! I am not
listening to Terry anymore!
I thought this was such a good idea--kids life jackets that you could just borrow and bring back. We need some of those at Hell's Canyon!
There was a little trolley that you could ride for about an hour and it only cost $1.00. That's the kind of entertainment out budget likes! We hollered to Bill, who was over looking in the window at the Maritime Museum. He came a
running and off we went on the trolley. It went up and back right along the river.
There was only one track
so we wondered if we would have to sit backwards on the way back. But, at the end of the line, you just get up, take
ahold of the little handle on the pack of the seat, and move it to the other side of the bench and you were facing the other way when you sat down! Pretty cool!
The conductor told us lots of interesting information about Astoria as we travelled along. This is a picture of the school where Kindergarten Cop was filmed. The whole thing was filmed in Astoria.
This is the house where the movie,
Goonies, was filmed. It was way up on a hill so I had to really zoom in for this picture.
The original Astoria was built on these
pylons out over the water. There was even a road that was built on top of them. But, Astoria burned down once, they rebuilt it, and it burned down again. The land under the
pylons is privately owned until the
pylons are removed. Then it reverts back to the government. Some buildings have been built back, but there are a lot of these posts sticking up all along the water because the owners haven't rebuilt, but they don't want to loose ownership of their land. They say that from the water down, the posts are preserved and are as good as the day they were put in, so they are just removed down to the water level, new ones clamped on, and a building is built on them.
Apparently, once in a while a ship will have a problem, such as breaking a rudder, and they run into the buildings along the edge of the water. That is what happened to this one.
This building has no protection around it and the conductor advised us to think twice about spending the night in it.
We had a
barbecue while Bill was with us and invited Larry and Elaine to come.
We had a great time and great food!
The morning we all left Seaside, Bill agreed to go on a bike ride along the Promenade with me, so we left Terry to get hooked up and we took off. Bill hadn't ridden a bike for about ten years, so he may have been a little stiff and sore the next day after out 6-mile ride. We told Bill he needs to retire and join us on some of our adventures. He said he would consider it in a couple of years!
Terry is terrible about stopping, for whatever reason, when he gets on the road. But with "encouragement" from the others, we stopped at the Tillamuck Cheese Factory. They were busy packaging cheese, which we were able to watch from big windows. We all got "squeaky" cheese to eat on our way to Seaside.
We were lucky again and got spots next to each other, Bob and us on one side . . .
I had to put this picture in because if any of Ron and Alice's kids look at this BLOG, they can see this big smile on their Mom's face and know she is having a great time!
Some friends, Larry and Elaine, of my brother Bill have been coming to Hell's Canyon with him every year for forever and they have become like family to us. Larry was raised in Seaside and inherited the old family home. Last year they tore down the old house and built a new one. It is very nice. Here we are with thin in front of the house. It is really a nice home! They will just use it as their vacation home for now.
One of our first days we went up to Astoria. It is built right at the mouth of the Columbia River and has quite a history.
Terry, Alice, and I took a tour of the "Flavel" house. It belonged to one of the first people who lived in Astoria. He started a bar pilot business guiding ships in the Columbia River. At one time he was the richest man in the area and he built this house. It has since been donated to the City as a historical site. It was amazing to go through it. I really think that I could live in those times with the horse and carriage and long skirts.
Terry is not sure he wants to go that high! He says, "It's sure a long ways up there!"
As you can see, it is a long way up! There were about 156 steps to the top and there is only room enough for a skinny spiral staircase. When you met someone coming down, you has to squeeze over to the side to make room for them. So, with Terry being kind of claustrophobic, besides not liking heights, I was surprised he climbed up the tower!
Well, here he is looking out the door. He said, "Whoa, this is as far as I am going!" And he headed straight back down the stairs! I must admit that it took a little courage to step out on that narrow balcony. I couldn't imagine how I ever took our six kids up there and let them out on it. I was gripping the railing most of the time I was up there.
It didn't take Terry too long to get to the bottom. If you can see that small speck of red, that is him, without zooming in on the camera. Bill threw him down a quarter and it looked like it just floated to the bottom.
Thank goodness there was a nice railing around the little walkway at the top of the tower.
There were great photo shots from the top of the tower!
These are the big freighter ships waiting for their turn to go north to where they get their loads.
This huge anchor is in the parking area of the Maritime Museum. It must have been a huge ship that used it!
This bell was out by the anchor. I wanted to ring it but Terry wouldn't let me. He said it would probably bring out the Coastguard or something. Right after that, some kids went over to it and rang the heck out of it and nothing happened! I am not listening to Terry anymore!
I thought this was such a good idea--kids life jackets that you could just borrow and bring back. We need some of those at Hell's Canyon!
There was a little trolley that you could ride for about an hour and it only cost $1.00. That's the kind of entertainment out budget likes! We hollered to Bill, who was over looking in the window at the Maritime Museum. He came a running and off we went on the trolley. It went up and back right along the river.
There was only one track so we wondered if we would have to sit backwards on the way back. But, at the end of the line, you just get up, take ahold of the little handle on the pack of the seat, and move it to the other side of the bench and you were facing the other way when you sat down! Pretty cool!
The conductor told us lots of interesting information about Astoria as we travelled along. This is a picture of the school where Kindergarten Cop was filmed. The whole thing was filmed in Astoria.
This is the house where the movie, Goonies, was filmed. It was way up on a hill so I had to really zoom in for this picture.
The original Astoria was built on these pylons out over the water. There was even a road that was built on top of them. But, Astoria burned down once, they rebuilt it, and it burned down again. The land under the pylons is privately owned until the pylons are removed. Then it reverts back to the government. Some buildings have been built back, but there are a lot of these posts sticking up all along the water because the owners haven't rebuilt, but they don't want to loose ownership of their land. They say that from the water down, the posts are preserved and are as good as the day they were put in, so they are just removed down to the water level, new ones clamped on, and a building is built on them.
Apparently, once in a while a ship will have a problem, such as breaking a rudder, and they run into the buildings along the edge of the water. That is what happened to this one.
This building has no protection around it and the conductor advised us to think twice about spending the night in it.
We had a barbecue while Bill was with us and invited Larry and Elaine to come.
We had a great time and great food!
The morning we all left Seaside, Bill agreed to go on a bike ride along the Promenade with me, so we left Terry to get hooked up and we took off. Bill hadn't ridden a bike for about ten years, so he may have been a little stiff and sore the next day after out 6-mile ride. We told Bill he needs to retire and join us on some of our adventures. He said he would consider it in a couple of years!
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