June 27 – July 2, 2019 Astoria, Oregon

We were sad to leave Florence and say good-bye to Bonnie however we were glad to leave Harbor Vista which turned out to be one of the most challenging RV Parks we’ve stayed in.  Our site was narrow and nothing but dirt and sand which we could not help dragging into the trailer.  The morning we left it was raining which meant breaking down camp and packing things up a little wet and messy because everything was covered with dirt.

We headed north up the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway on our way to Astoria.  It was a wet and beautiful drive. We had planned to stop by a glass blowing place in Lincoln City that Jae and Steve told us about. However they had no availability on the day we would be passing through.  As we approached Lincoln City we called to see if there were any cancellations and it turns out there was one so we told him we’d be there.  We rolled into town for our designated time and miraculously found a public parking area that would accommodate the truck and trailer. Peter finagled a time for both of us to do the glass blowing. We have had good fortune many times on this trip.

Peter made a red fluted candy bowl and JY a yellow and teal heart.  We each had a half hour with a seasoned glass blower.  It was a hands on process but our instructor did most of the hazardous tasks so nobody would be injured.  The finished pieces were placed in a cooling oven to prevent cracking and are being mailed to our home address.

After the glass blowing we headed north to the Tillamook Cheese processing plant. There was a self-guided tour on the second floor as visitors viewed workers below processing and packaging cheese.  We also watched a video on how Tillamook ice cream was made.  We then lined up for cheese tasting. JY loves cheese but Peter did not (until now.) He was a good sport and ended up appreciating cheese and dairy in all forms. Who knew?

We bought some cheese and a few trinkets in the gift store. JY did not buy any cheese earrings. For lunch we had (what else) grilled cheese sandwiches. Then it was ice cream time.

On our way from Tillamook to Astoria our GPS decided we should go somewhere else – Portland.  We ended up driving 20 miles down a very narrow paved logging road that undulated up and down like a washboard.  There was barely enough room for us driving 35 MPH when a logging truck going in the opposite direction passed by us at 65 MPH.  We finally found a spot where we could turn around and 20 miles later we were back on track.  Little Miss Know-it-all (our GPS) was in the dog house because she was still insisting we should be going to Portland.

We finally found the RV Park and soon settled in.  Peter explained to the lady camp host about the GPS giving us bad directions.  She cocked her head to the side and said, “Peter do you believe everything a woman tells you?”

Astoria is a great little town with history.  It is the place where Lewis & Clarke camped for ††††

the winter on their “Journey of Discovery”.  We toured a reconstruction of Fort Clatsop where the party stayed, witnessed a musket demonstration and took a guided nature tour through the woods where the Lewis and Clark Expedition walked. We learned more about this important time in history. The expedition was essentially a Scientific Expedition so the participants cataloged samples of flora and fauna. As they had never seen a prairie dog before they captured a live one (no easy task) and sent it back to Washington for further study.

We were told about a place on the wharf with good seafood, especially their “phone chowder.” As the story goes, the owner of the restaurant came to work one day to find his employees talking on their cell phones while cooking. He proceeded to take all their phones and drop them in a pot of chowder. The next day, the employees decided to get back at him by replacing the name on the menu from clam chowder to phone chowder. The name stuck and the phone chowder has become famous. The phone chowder is delicious (sans phones) and buckets of the chowder are sold every day. About five different fish are used in this wonderful concoction.

June 30 was Peter’s birthday so he went salmon fishing.  A guy at the fish market where we ate phone chowder hooked him up with a fishing guide leaving at 6:00 am the next morning.  Turns out they were going salmon fishing in the morning and sturgeon fishing in the afternoon.  He caught two good size salmon and a 5’ and 6’ sturgeon (catch and release).  The sturgeon were real fighters and fun to catch. Excuse the length of the video – this was the BIGGEST fish Peter ever caught. The salmon were cleaned and vacuum packed so we will be eating Orange Glazed Salmon soon.

†

We toured a little bit of Astoria on the Trolley.  It was interesting to drive right by the pier where we docked a few weeks earlier returning from our 21 day voyage to Alaska. Also while in Astoria we walked along the beach by Fort Stevens and came across the rusting hull of a ship called the “Peter Iredale” which was grounded on the beach in 1906. The sand has buried most of the hull and according to the park ranger the majority of the hull is buried in 30 feet of sand.