I slept 8 ½ hours last night and feel great this morning. I did my 5 Tibetans, and then we left for Warrenton and Astoria. We drove Highway 26 West for about 20 minutes or so before finding a Jerky Shop called the SUNSET MARKET PRODUCE. The shop had several different types of jerky, including:
We encountered fog as we entered Seaside. In fact, the fog was so thick that we could not see the ocean. And Seaside is on the ocean! I loved the fog; it gave the town a cool eerie atmosphere. Sadly, the fog prevented us from going onto the beach (mainly because we could not see the beach or the ocean). So we drove down the main street and on to Astoria. Along the way we saw 50 zillion little espresso shops alongside the highway, so I called it the "Espresso Highway". Just before Warrenton we saw signs for a zip line and a park, which the kids really wanted to try. However, they wanted to eat 1st, so we drove on to Astoria.
We ate lunch at the BAKED ALASKA restaurant, which the LONELY PLANET Guide to the Pacific Northwest recommended. We had a little difficulty locating the restaurant's entrance when we arrived. I enjoyed the food. The kids felt that the restaurant's Clam Chowder was the best that they ever tasted. Jackie loved her fried oysters. Steve enjoyed his Salmon but felt that the accompanying salad was too salty. Sophia ordered fruit and cheese but felt that the fruit had seasoning on it that made it taste too spicy for her. Steve and John concurred on the pears. Our server brought Sophia some more strawberries, and all was well.
After enjoying our yummy lunch, we ambled out on to the street and slowly made our way back to the car. Astoria is a pretty small 1 main street kind of town. I imagine it was even smaller when Dad and his fmaily lived here back in the 1940s. Uncle Bill later told me that he and Dad worked at the bowling alley in Astoria. So finding that bowling alley is on our to-do list for our next trip up to Astoria.
After lunch we drove over to PIER 39 because Jackie wanted to try the coffee at the COFFEE GIRL Shop. Well the selas actually like to hang out beside PIER 39, so we enjoyed several minutes of watching seals frolicking in the Columbia River near some rocks. I was surprised that they came this far up the Columbia River.
After several minutes of watching the seals play, we eventually walked around the pier to the COFFEE GIRL shop. Jackie and Steve and the kids got their sugar fix for the day. After a while John wandered off to read, and I joined him. I also wandered around the pier some more.
After everybody got their sugar and coffee fix, we wandered around the pier inside for a while and checked out the shops. Finally, we walked back ot our car and set off on our next adventure.
After a little discussion, we decided to visit the Astoria Column. So we drove up and bought some balsa wood airplanes to throw off of the top and proceeded to walk up the long flight of stairs. Jackie and I led the rear guard, while Steve raced the kids up. Once on top, we had a spectacular view of Astoria and the Columbia River and evne a little bit of Washington state. I found looking down from the top was a little disconcerting and uncomfortable. However, the kids loved it. After admiring the views up top for a while, we sloely made our way down to the safe ground. John saw an intact airplane lying on the road, which Steve recovered. John then immediately decided he had to run back up the Column and throw the airplane off. So he ran up, followed closely by Steve and Sophia. Jackie, James, and I decided to test the comfort of the benches while they were busy running up the Column. After returning to Mother Earth, we set off for the Zip Lines again.
We drove back south to the park with the zip lines. We arrived to find that we were about an hour too late for the last zip line of the day. Also, that Sophia was a few pounds underweight to solo on the zip line. We asked a manager who lived in Warrenton if he knew Dad and Uncle Bill's house in town. Unfortunately, he did not. So Jackie and Steve resolved to return again for the zip lines some time in the future.
So after leaving the Zip Line place we drove around Warrenton looking for Dad's old house. We drove through several blocks but did not see any house resembling what Uncle Bill described. I resigned myself to asking Uncle Bill for more details and returning to Warrenton in December to look some more. We then drove back to Portland, stopping at ZUPAN'S for groceries. We noticed more espresso shops along the highway returning to Portland. Northwest Oregon is clearly Espresso Heaven! And such aws our adventure visiting Astoria and Warrenton.
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