May 24 - Cape Disappointment State Park

Dead Man's Cove

A cruise ship on the way to Astoria.  The South Jetty is in the background on the far right and looks misty because of the waves crashing against it.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse - one of two lighthouses in the park

North Head Lighthouse.  Didn't Galen take a great photo of Larry and Lu?  They are about to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

Galen.  The Cape Disappointment lighthouse is barely visible in the background.

Another photo of the North Head Lighthouse.  We didn't get many photos with blue skies the past months.

May 22 - Astoria

We returned to Astoria the next day and while Larry and Galen were getting our fish and chips from the Bowpicker, I got a photo of the tall ship with billowing sails.  The ship to the right is a Coast Guard ship.

Karen and Lu standing by a large buoy on the grounds of the Maritime Museum.

The four of us rode the trolley that runs along the Columbia River.  The trolley was being leased for $1 a year from the San Antonio Museum of Art when we were here in 2003.  Since that time, Astoria purchased the trolley for $50,000.00 and restored it.  Riding the trolley is really cheap entertainment.  For a mere $1.00 each we got about an hour ride on the trolley and learned about Astoria history on the way.

May 21 - Tall Ships

Astoria is celebrating their 200th year of being a city this year and has something fun going on most weekends.  This weekend two tall ships did battle maneuvers and traded like they did long ago.

We didn't see the "battles" but here is a photo of the trading.

May 20 - Jammin'

We jammed outside "our" woodshed on the few nice days we had and a few hosts and campers came to listen.  That cute little dog is named Coco and he belongs to our co-hosts across the road.

The players left to right:  Galen, Karen, Lu, Larry, and Bill.

May 18 - Local scenery

A buoy tree in Warrenton, OR

On the Columbia River in Astoria, OR

May 17 - Seaside, OR

We were mostly silly in Seaside today.  Isn't Galen cute in a Gator hat?

May 15 - South Jetty

One of the most dangerous places in the world for ships is where the Pacific Ocean and the Columbia River meet.  The South Jetty, near Fort Stevens, and the North Jetty, in Washington, help calm things down, but it is still a very dangerous place.  The South Jetty is also a lovely place to get sunset photos.

May 13 - Long Beach, WA

We were going to take our friends Bill and Margaret to Seaside but on the way changed our minds and went to Long Beach instead.  We had a fun day exploring and taking tourist photos. 

Our friends Margaret and Bill.  The real background behind this frying pan was ugly so I deleted a background and Photoshopped a fire under the pan just for fun.

May 10 - Astoria

This is a view from the bridge taken on the way to Astoria.

I hung around a coffee shop while Galen ran errands in Astoria.  Isn't this a pretty latte?

May 9 - Longview, WA

We took a trip to Longview, WA today and it is not unusual to for us to check out libraries when we go sightseeing.  This was quite a nice library that was donated by one of the early founders of Longview.

A sculpture outside the library.

Inside the library.

This squirrel (the one on the right - the one on the left is just squirrely) is on the library grounds and is a memorial to the man who came up with the Nutty Narrows.

The Nutty Narrows is a bridge for squirrels that goes over a busy street in Longview to make street crossings safer for squirrels.  The bridge has been so successful (I'm not sure if it has been more successful for squirrels or for drawing tourists into town) that the city has ordered more squirrel bridges.

May 8 - Bowpicker

The best place around to get fish and chips is from this little boat parked in a parking lot across from the Maritime Museum in Astoria.  We frequented this spot in 2002 and 2003 and where pleased to see it is still going strong.  In fact, they now have three coolers under the tree where you pick up your drinks instead of the one cooler we remember.

The fish is fresh tuna and the fries are excellent, too.  All they sell at the Bowpicker is fish and chips.  You can get a full order or a half order.  We get a full order and share it.

May 6 - Peter Iredale

Fort Stevens has its very own shipwreck on the beach.  The ship is the Peter Iredale, a ship from England that sank in 1906.  All those aboard were rescued, but if they had waited until low tide, they could have walked to shore.

May 1 - Orientation

There are 27 host couples at Fort Stevens and here we are at the May orientation.

We actually started working before orientation since we arrived at Fort Stevens a week early.  Our job was manning the entry gate on the south side of the park and turning away all those without a pass.  The south half of the park was open only for the weekend because of the wine and crab festival (way more wine than crab) in Astoria the last weekend of April.