Astoria

 In all our years of traveling by motorhome, we've never done it before...

We arrived at Ft. Steven's State Park, outside of Astoria, for a 5 day stay in a full hook up site.    We checked in, got our park map and proceeded to our assigned site.     It was small and muddy and on a very crowded loop.    Campfires smoldered in the drizzle.    Behind the site was a shallow swamp.  The only way Dave could shoehorn Beluga in caused our entry door to open into the deep, wet foliage and a tire worn mud hole.   Hordes of mosquitos swarmed us as we attempted to set up.     We've never ended a stay before even starting,  but there is a first time for everything.      We checked around the area, found a site in the nearby KOA and considered ourselves lucky to escape what would have surely been a miserable week in one of our favorite little cities.  

the huge Astoria-Megler Bridge connects Oregon and Washington

                   

We did more of what we've been doing all along the coast.       Eating good and local food, finding beaches and forests to explore, watching Ocean going ships and their river pilots, reading and just enjoying ourselves.    The weather was mostly good.    Cool and sunny with only a little rain and wind thrown in to remind us where we were.     There is plenty to do in the Astoria area,  museums, galleries, a wonderful music venue in the old Liberty Theatre, hikes, history, golf,  but we've been there before and done much of it before.    This visit we had a lazy, lovely time.

Bridgewater Bistro

Dave was on (daily) overload at the pastry case in Blue Scorcher Bakery

one of the important reasons for our stop in Astoria!

a charming waiter brings lunch right to the Jeep!

the only item on Bowpicker's menu - Albacore Tuna and chips!

our lunch time view

We found river beaches and ocean beaches.   We walked along the sandy Columbia River side to the jetties, we drove on the ocean beaches to put some distance between ourselves and any one else before we began our walks.      Lew loved both.

the waves on the Columbia River were huge this day

parked behind the cover of grassy dunes - all alone!

not as many things to chew on the ocean's beach

I was going to try and bring you up to date on this blog post, but the service here is very very slow, so I'll come back later to fill you in on our recent explorations.     We're in the beautiful Washington wine country in Prosser until Monday morning....so you know what we'll be doing until then, right?