Astoria, Oregon- I wanna go again!

I can not get enough of the whole wild flower thing! (See Mt Rainer Blog) Anyway, after the American Idol Concert, we (think Cindy Lauper and sing) "Drove all night" to get to Astoria. We stayed in an awesome 4 room suite right under this HUGE bridge on the Columbia River. Astoria is apparently famous for a few things, among them is having Goonies and Kidergarten Cop filmed there. (We rented these movies to watch late at night during our stay.) Also the are one of the oldest working docks on the Columbia. I loved the museums and history of this town. Above you will see us on the door steps of a old house. This is the Flavel House, this was the retirement home of a wealthy Bar Pilot who pioneered Astoria. He married a 14 yr old girl when he was like 30. She was commended for keeping it together as well as she did, there was a lot of pressure on her as the wealthiest woman in Astoria. I very much enjoy learning about the people of the day and what their life was like. There were several documentary type movies for us to watch in the museums in Astoria. The first few pictures you see are of the Bar Pilot Museum. This is where we learned what a Bar Pilot is. Apparently it is extremely dangerous work, I'll leave it at that, otherwise I will have to find a publisher for my work. Eldon and the kids loved this museum, they learned how to tie several different knots and how to turn a boat around and there were loads of maps, compasses and recovered wreckage. We were also able to board a real boat and check out the facilities. Elijah liked the bunks. Jacob liked the deck, Hannah liked the kitchen, I liked the shore.

The Astoria Column is also pictured here. It is something like 167 feet tall. We purchased some floater plains to release at the top. It was neat to watch them fly from that high up. The views were spectacular. The stairs are another story... every fitness club should have a column like this one.