March 20: Sunset from the Pier 11 Restaurant

It was a nice time of the evening to have dinner on the water, so we (Lee and I) went to the still-newish restaurant on Pier 11 - The Pier 11 Steak and Seafood Restaurant. Actually, our first choice for dinner had been the Urban Cafe tonight, but there was a wait and we were hungry. As we arrived on Pier11, this coot had also found some dinner. The image was interesting and I took its photo from the pier railing just outside the restaurant.

The rest of these photos were taken as we ordered and ate. The flat area to the left is the Washington end of the Astoria-Megler bridge.

I love the colors of this ship, the Senorita, registered in Grimstad. I couldn't find the Senorita online (and it has no tilde over the "n" on the ship), but Grimstad is a busy harbor town in Norway, so it could be the right point of registration. It's not a name I see often on the ships that go up and down the Columbia. This ship was just glowing in the sunset. It was gorgeous. My camera and I don't handle lighting like this very well, but I did try to get it. It may help to click on the photo and enlarge it.

Here three ships rest for the night on the wide, calm, Columbia River in Astoria just outside our window at the restaurant. Ducks swam, ate, dove, and caroused on the water below our window. Once we saw a sea lion break the surface of the water on its way up or down river.

As early evening faded to twilight, we watched the ships' lights come on, reflecting in the delicate ripples of the water. It was a calm night, both for the colors and for the surface of the water.

After a tasty chicken in marsala sauce and other goodies, we got up to leave the peaceful setting. You can see how close we are to the window, and how close the window is to the water. The entire restaurant is on pilings over the river.

Night settles in on the Columbia River. It's beautiful, isn't it?

Flooding in Washington

We had just finished breakfast at Nancy P's on a beautiful, dry, and sunny morning in Bend, when we left the cafe/bakery and got a dose of reality. Yes, people had been telling us about the rain, but this was real news. Later we learned that I-5 was completely flooded for miles around Chehalis - news which went national, and was on the nightly news report. I spent most of the day at home at Lee's house working on the Tapir and Friends web site and attending to business as usual, and these shots of the newspaper vending machine are all the photos I have for the day. I made up for it on other days, so maybe it's nice to have only a couple of pix today!

This is one of those historic weather years so far, and here's an example of it in print. I noted in one post that Sue had sent Barbara home early. I later found out Barbara, who lives in the Naselle area, couldn't GET home that night and stayed with her granddaughter. Naselle is right near the coast, and the I-5 corridor is further inland, but no matter, large parts of both Oregon and Washington are getting soaked. We don't rack up 70 to 90 inches of rain per year on the records for nothing, it's just that this year a lot of it is coming at one time.

To Portland with Laurel, James, Kiley, Lee (and Teagan)

I didn't realize until the phone rang that I'd be going into Portland today to pick Lee up and come back with him to Astoria. Laurel and James were going in anyway to spend Thanksgiving with Laurel's mom, and I rode in with them. We all got ready quickly, since they hadn't planned to leave until early afternoon. Kiley (above) was prepared at a moment's notice, so no problem there. The only issue is that I felt like taking pictures, and Kiley seemed to think the camera was an evil instrument of torture, because she'd turn away and pop into the back of the car when I pointed the lens in her direction.

It was a stunningly gorgeous fall day. The drive to Portland from Astoria takes about two hours, but I never get tired of it. Even though it's on highway and Interstate Freeway, the scenery is mostly trees and forests. The route goes along the Columbia River the whole way, although it's usually hidden by trees and the sloping bank. One drives east to Longview, then south to Portland. Ships can navigate all the way to Portland. The quickest auto route is from Astoria to Longview on the Oregon side of the river, then from Longview to Portland on the Washington side. At Vancouver, Washington, we cross the river again into Portland (Oregon). You can go the southern route from Astoria over Highway 26, but we usually go via Longview along the river.

Here's Laurel, driving.

It's too bad about the power lines here. The colors are beautiful. The black dots are Canada geese. You can see the white patches on their faces when you blow it up to the original size. There are a lot of sloughs along the river. We're on the Washington side of the Interstate now.

Lee likes trains, and I took a couple of photos for him. The engines were orange and horribly out of focus, so I didn't include them.

Not that these pix are so interesting, but this blog is my memory book, so . . . it doesn't matter.

I'm sure this pic doesn't do justice to the light. Everywhere we drove in the city, the sun shone through colorful leaves. I love the black trunk and the leaves in contrast. I couldn't get a shot of some of the best ones, so I settled for this tree near Starbucks when we stopped the car.

More light and leaves, although this tree looks more like spring than fall.

These bushes were pretty against Starbucks' latte-colored wall.

Here is Laurel with Lee (her dad). They hadn't seen each other for about six weeks. First Lee and I went to Paris for a week, then he spent three weeks in India, a week in Chicago and a week in Bend. Meanwhile, Teagan has been growing to the size of a pineapple (according to the baby web site). I'm not sure if that's with leaves on or off. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to be together. We all had sushi for lunch with Laurel's mom, then Lee and I drove back to Astoria where the sun was history, at least for now.

July 24: Fort Columbia, Washington

Today I crossed the Astoria-Megler bridge and discovered Fort Columbia on the Washington side of the river. It was another gorgeous day in the mid-60s. I can't get over what beautiful green places there are to explore and enjoy so close to home. This is a view over the Columbia River from the fort grounds. We're not far from where the bridge "lands" on the river bank, so the view from here includes looking back at Astoria itself.

I liked the white flowers in the grass up on the hill here where you can park the car.

Berry bushes and officers' housing. It's really tranquil here, as very few people seem to visit. It's nicely kept up, and it's just beautiful.

Here's one of the few gun emplacements. Fort Columbia has a long history, but it's now used by tourists, hikers, picknickers, and a few people wanting to take nice photos or look for wildlife.

I'm still getting used to the way such a profusion of plants either grow wild or take to the wild here. Nobody needs to water them.

The officers' housing is in two neat rows. It's kind of strange how they're kept up and look like someone should be living in them.

Berry bushes and old buildings, Fort Columbia, Washington.

It's almost like a ghost town, but it's in immaculate condition.

I wandered down a path into the thicket of plants, and found this crazy thing hidden away in an unlikely spot. I'm sure it made sense at the time it was in use: G.E. 50 KW. Gas Generator, Patented March 8, 1913. I would have made a link to some information, but I couldn't find any.

Here's another flower growing wild on the grounds. I imagine it was brought in when people lived here.

Nice berries growing wild.

Here's the Columbia River with a boat jetting along in the direction of the open sea.

I was all set to take a photo in the dim light of the woods, then the wind rippled through and blurred the seeds. I liked the effect.

Looking back across the Columbia at Astoria. You can see the bridge at the horizon on the left.

This is Astoria again. It was a calm, quiet day, and a bit lonesome. It's good to have someone to share nice places with, but at the moment, I don't have that. Feeling kinda sad.

Muddy water here along the rocky bank.

July 13: Beauty along the River Walk

I took this photo of the ship and pilings in the huge Columbia River just beyond the Maritime Museum. Obviously, it's another beautiful day here in Astoria.

Day 4, Part 3: The greens and browns of Eastern Oregon

We went through a lot of brown country today, encountered the Snake River twice and ended at the Columbia River. We'd started the day at the Snake River in Idaho, and this is the Snake again somewhere near the crossing to Oregon.

Our next destination on the map was Baker City, where we bought gas and food. Baker City seems to have some Old West charm, but we didn't take time to look around. I liked the sign: "Explore the Baker City Historic District."

Here's more of Baker City after we left the gas station.

This was encouraging. The landscape was turning green and there were mountains on the horizon. We were following basically the same Oregon Trail the pioneers had followed. I wonder what they thought of this after all the many days in the desert. Actually, I don't know their route that well. It would be interesting to look at it.

It was wonderful to see the bright purple lupine beside the road, and we got out for a few minutes on the hillside.

Now the countryside kept changing.

An amusing sign? Actually both of them were, considering how warm it was. It seemed like it would never be icy here.

I believe this is the rest stop parking lot that goes with the sign above. The countryside was turning green, which was seriously refreshing. Notice I'm taking a lot more photos. I think the stress had abated some, and I was excited about being in Oregon. Almost "home" now, wherever that was, and enjoying the hills and the green.

I was surprised and delighted when we began passing through pine forests and meadows. This type of environment always energizes and excites me. Oregon seemed quite OK at this point, and the air had cooled down. We'd gone up quite a bit in elevation.

Hmm. I'd been worried about this chain between the truck and trailer, but I hadn't done anything about it. It had been dragging, and you can see where the links had begun to wear thin. One would think it was obvious to tie it up from the beginning, but (I swear) the rather stupid guy where I rented the truck said to let it hang on the ground. Not knowing that much about did or did not make for the best towing, I wanted to do it right. If there was some reason to let it drag, I'd trusted him and not my own brain. Now THAT was stupid! I don't know what the heck he'd been thinking.

There were nice things to look at here, too, and I took more photos.

In fact, I felt so good, I took a memory book photo of the car up on the trailer. There's my tapir bumper sticker and the sticker Sharon Matola had sent me from The Belize Zoo, even though I hadn't been there yet. The box in the car says, "Toiletries." I put stuff in the car that I would want to get to at rest stops and hotels.

Our final goal for the day was the Columbia River. We were cutting across the northeast corner of the state from the Snake to the Columbia. Unfortunately, that brought us down again out of the wonderful mountainous zone into the brown flatland again, and I didn't take any more pictures for the rest of the day. It seemed to take forever, but we finally reached the river at Umatilla a bit before sunset. There was water, yeah, but it was hot, hot, hot. We promptly looked for a place to stay. It was a small motel, our funkiest accommodations yet, and I bought a coffee mug from the gift shop to commemorate the first night in Oregon. I got the least ugly one they had, which was still truly tasteless, I thought. They had some awful souvenirs there, and it made me glad I didn't live in Umatilla. The mug was black with the word "Oregon" in gold script (which was kind of OK) and I don't remember what the picture was, although I think it may have been nondescript scenic. Writing this from the future, I thought I still had it (8 years later), but I think I finally trashed it this year. If I took a picture of it before I let it go, it will turn up on this blog sooner or later :)

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