A Day in Astoria

Well today we headed to Astoria to check out the Astoria Column and the river front.  The Astoria column is a tower that was built in 1926 with financing by the Great Northern Railway and Vincent Astor, the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor in commemoration of the city's role in the family's business history. Patterned after the Trajan Column in Rome, the Column was dedicated on July 22, 1926.

The tower is 125-foot and includes an interior spiral staircase with 164 stairs that leads to an observation deck at the top. There are 14 murals that show significant events in the early history of Oregon with a focus on Astoria's role including Captain Gray's discovery of the Columbia River in 1792 and the Lewis & Clark Expedition. It was built at a cost of $27,133.96. We climbed up to the top, what a fantastic view, it was a complete 360.

 

 

After finding three geocaches up at the column sight we headed down to the waterfront to take a look around. We saw the trolley go by so we decided to find the nearest stop and go for a ride. We have been trying to take a ride on this trolley the last three times we have been to Astoria, but it is always closed down and doesn’t open up till Spring Break. So this time we thought we might get lucky. There is also a geocache on the trolley somewhere so hopefully we can find it. So onto the trolley we went but surprise they weren’t actually open they were just requalifying drivers to get ready for the summer season. I did find the geocache though, and explained to the drivers what it was all about. They knew that the cache was there but they didn’t really know what it was. I also found out from them that they were expecting 29 cruise ships this summer to dock in Astoria on their way to Alaska. We had to get off the trolley at the end of town and walk back to truck because they weren’t on a regular run. It was a nice walk along the wharf.

This is one of the boats that take the river pilots out to the big ships

 

 

We then decided to go and visit the South Jetty. The Jetty was built to assist the large ships coming into Astoria harbour before they make their way up the river to Portland. The Columbia River bar is where the largest river entering the Pacific Ocean in the western hemisphere meets the broadest reach of open ocean in the world. This area is considered the most dangerous piece section of water in the world There are two types of river pilots, one that navigating through the bar and the other who navigates up the river to Portland. The pilots for the bar get to the ships by taking smaller speed boats out to the ships and literally climb up the side of the ships to get on board.

While we were out looking at the jetty and across the river at Cape Disappointment I decided to go overland and look for a geocache at the most northwestern point in Oregon. The directions said to take the back trails because it was a little shorter going than walking the beach, so Len dropped me off and then he headed over to the Jetty to wait.

So the trail that was supposed to be easier turned out to be a little wet this time of year. I got past the first few puddles and about half way through I encountered a swamp but because I was already half way there I didn’t really have a choice but to keep going forward. Luckily the piles of grass were quite thick and if I stepped carefully they would hold me up. I must say that I was much luckier than I have been on previous swamp hikes. This one I managed to walk the mile, walking on water and I only got one shoe a little wet. So I found the cache, got a picture of the lighthouse across the river and headed to meet Len at the Jetty.

Len was busy at the Jetty, he saw a snowy owl and spent some of his time stalking it trying to get close enough to get a good picture of it, without spooking it. He did manage to get a couple good pictures of it with his telephoto lens. He also got some great shots of the jetty and a ship coming through the opening.

 

 A Ship going through the bar.

The elusive Snowy Owl

 

 Clam Diggers

After our little adventure we were a little tuckered so we headed back to the condo to relax out on the deck before we had our prime rib dinner. To top off the evening we got to Skype with Aaron, Chelsea and the girls who are vacationing in Hawaii. You have to love technology..

 

Len enjoying the shorts weather.