Monday, July 23, 2001

July 23, Astoria: Ships, signs, and the ever-present Columbia

It started out a bit overcast today, but it cleared up beautifully. It got up to a whopping 66 degrees. As I've said, I love this kind of summer! The ship above is going past my apartment. I'm still amazed after more than a month that I can come out onto the deck and see such sights.

This is the Astoria welcome sign at the other end of town near Hauke's market. It has to be the nicest sign I've ever seen welcoming someone to town.

Same sign, closer view.

Not far away from the welcome sign is this stretch of the River Walk. I took photos here four days ago, but it was heavily overcast and the results of the photos were completely different. I love all the remnants of things in the river. The rock piles were intended to be breakwaters, I'm sure, but there are pilings and such to look at all along the waterfront.

Here's the view back toward the Astoria Bridge and the big red building that the owners have to reach via a small catwalk. The boxy black thing is made of concrete. It's probably left over from a cannery or something of that sort.

What a beautiful wide-open feeling you get at the East Mooring Basin. There are fishing boats mostly, but other types of boats can dock here, too.

Just another view of the Columbia River with pilings from some old building. That looks like a sailboat out there. I've seen a few here, but not many.

There's one of the big ships that pass this way. Even that looks dwarfed here where the river is so wide. The hills are in Washington, on the other side of the river.

Back home now. A huge auto pack glides out toward the ocean. I love the shapes of these. It seems odd how they reach so cliff-like from the water like huge floating walls.

I've gotten one more area cleaned up and organized. This is in the work room, and the bins contain packing material for shipping. The wreath and the ribbon on the door are thanks to Kate. I love the artistic things she sends me. She makes wonderfully surprising gifts. I'll have to get into that sometime. Thank you, Kate!

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