Seaside, Homeward along the Columbia, Friday

We didn't have any plans for Friday.  It was still rather wet so we didn't want to play on the beach.  We decided to take a scenic route home through Astoria and along the Columbia River and just explore along the way.


My firstborn is getting so big!

Astoria is the oldest settlement this side of the rockies.  It is historically rich with early explorers, Chinook Native American history, and the Lewis and Clark expedition.  

Astoria, looking across the bridge into Washington.

And from the other side, looking across into Oregon.
We clocked the mileage and figured it was about 3.5 miles across the mouth of the Columbia (at this section).

Middle village, this was a settlement in the 1850's, where there was a cannery, and a church.  
This is the McGowan church (named after the founding family) and it still holds service in the summer.

This was across the street from the Middle Village site, looking toward Astoria.

Fort Columbia was in operation from 1896 to the end of the WWII.  We read that Captain Gray "discovered" the area in 1792 and that Captain Scarborough was the first settler in 1843.


You can rent out these historic buildings on the grounds of the fort.

Astoria Column

156 steps up

Glorielle was quite frightened. 

360 degree view from the top, looking over the Columbia, Astoria, the ocean, and across the forested hills.











Back down again, it was so windy that I got a little motion sick! (Incidentally, this is one of those strange words that can mean breezy or lots of tight turns and when I was editing it, at first, I couldn't figure out why I wrote that it was breezy in the building.)

Coming into Longview, Washington.  
We pass Longview on the freeway going to and from Seattle but we have never see this view with the boats and all the wood processing factories along the Columbia.  I didn't realize that Longview was based so much on the logging industry.



LOL, tuckered out and drooling (and snoring too)

Smoothy mishaps

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