Tag Archives: Astoria

Astoria to Cannon Beach

We’ve been away from our Country Bungalow since June 20th. Our first stop was at our Son and DIL’s home for two nights. Then early on Monday morning we drove from Bothell to Cannon Beach, Oregon but our first stop on that journey was in Astoria, Oregon.

We were only stopping here for a meal before we continued on to Cannon Beach.

Perched at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River, Astoria is Oregon’s oldest city and the first permanent U.S. settlement west of the Rockies.

With Victorian-era homes etched into hills overlooking the Columbia River, this picturesque settlement is a port city with Scandinavian flavor. Surrounded by forests, boasting three rivers and situated a stone’s throw away from the Pacific, Astoria is a fishing village-meets-Victoriana, chockablock with forts, museums and great local brews.

If you squint, you can see the bridge in the distance that connects this part of Oregon to Washington State.

We had decided ahead of time to eat at Fort George Brew Pub and we were not disappointed.

The seafood chowder was so good and the Albacore Fish and Chips were excellent. The Albacore was a first for us and we really enjoyed it.

The house made tartar sauce was excellent, too.

Driving out of town we stopped to get a closer shot of this bridge.

Astoria Bridge, truss bridge spanning the mouth of the Columbia River between the states of Oregon and Washington, western United States. It was designed by William A. Bugee and at its completion in 1966, it was the longest continuous-truss bridge in the world.

It is 4.1 miles long.

Before we made it into the little seaside town of Cannon Beach we made a stop at Ecola State Park to get these views of Cannon Beach.

We managed to arrive at a good weather window. We paid $12 to park which was the ‘out of state’ parking fee.

Sea air does a number on my hair so I’ll be in search of a good hat to wear for any future beach trips.

The famous Haystack rock is one of many along the Oregon Coast.

 

Zooming in for our final shot of Haystack. In the next several days we would see the rock up close.

On the way back to our car we took another path to see a different view of the Pacific Ocean.

We drove the narrow winding State Park road down again to get to downtown Cannon Beach where we would be staying for the next 5 nights. More about our time in future posts.

It was a very nice time away but it is very good to be back home.

Astoria

We started out from our house while it was still dark. I saw the sun rise in the rear view mirror when we were approaching Olympia, Washington. We had never traveled from Washington to the Oregon coast before so when we got off of the interstate all roads and sights were new to us. We drove through Kelso and into Longview where we crossed from Washington into Oregon on the Lewis and Clark Bridge.

Stopping at a viewpoint and looking back I got a shot of the bridge with the sun rising in the East.

The view West towards the mouth of the Columbia river where it meets the Pacific ocean was a lot different.

We passed through many small sleepy towns on our way to Astoria. Our first stop in Astoria was to have some breakfast. We stopped at Stephanie’s Cabin. The restaurant didn’t look anything like a cabin but the food was good old fashioned grub. We split the Cabin Omelet ~ Ham, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, cheese, hashbrowns, covered with their own sausage gravy and served with a homemade biscuit.

Yes folks this is what a heart attack on a plate looks like but only if this is the way you ate every day or for every meal. It was a real tasty vacation treat for one of our 2 meals of the day…

After breakfast we checked out a few of the Astoria sights. “The City of Astoria– the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, is situated on the Oregon shore of the Columbia River. The city is nestled on steep hillsides overlooking the Columbia River, and is a short distance from the Pacific Ocean.”

This is the Astoria-Megler Bridge and judging from all the comments that you have made about the bridge it’s a scary one to cross.  That’s Washington across the Columbia. The bridge is 4 miles long.

From a distance it looks quite tame.

This was our view leaving Astoria crossing Young’s Bay on Highway 101.

Our next seaside stop was in Cannon Beach.

Here in the Northwest the big news is that we are finally getting a week long stretch of warm sunshiny days. I’ll be watering more and keeping my sunglasses handy. Hope the weather is treating you nice where you are.

FFF ~ Summer Roadtrip

It’s time to think back over the week and pick out some favorites to share. I’m thankful for Susanne at Living to Tell the Story…for who she is as a fellow blogger and for hosting this worthwhile meme each week.

Tuesday morning Dear and I took off for the Oregon Coast for a night and then swung inland and northward for a night at Bonneville Hot Springs. Here are a few highlights of our time. More to come next week…

Our first stop was Astoria, Oregon. Did any of you ever watch Goonies? Well Goonies was filmed here in this coastal city. We had breakfast here and then we found the Goonies House. The Flavel house museum looked interesting but one thing about traveling with Dear is that you start real early and usually get to your first destination before anything opens. We headed south along the coast after our heart attack on a plate breakfast.

We decided to stop at Tillamook Cheese in Tillamook, Oregon. It was interesting to see the cheese assembly line. Besides cheese samples and a cafeteria you could buy scoops of their delicious ice cream.

Our first night we stayed at the Salishan Spa just below Lincoln City, Oregon. It was in a lovely setting and had a golf course on the grounds. We enjoyed a quiet night here with a nice view of the water from our room.

We drove through many little Seaside towns on our way here.

For the second night of our roadtrip we stayed just across the Columbia river from Oregon at Bonneville Hot Springs Resort in Bonneville, Washington. We again had a lovely room and a great view. The mineral waters in the pool and hot tub were refreshing and relaxing. The great room at this resort is really beautiful with that floor to ceiling stone fireplace…

I’ll be posting a lot more photos next week from Cannon Beach and Multnomah falls and the amazing waves we heard and saw on our walk to the beach from Salashan spa. Those all deserved posts of their own. Hope you are enjoying the beginning of September. We are getting some real warm weather forecast for the next week or so…