Astoria, Oregon: A Day Trip With Character
Recently my son and his wife came to visit us for a couple of weeks. In my opinion, your visit would not be complete without going to the Oregon coast for a day of exploration. Since it doesn’t take much to give me an excuse to go west, this was going to be a great day! We went to Astoria, which is one of the oldest cities on the west coast. It is located at the mouth of the Columbia River and is filled with old Victorian houses that are strung in layers around a central hill overlooking Washington State, the Columbia River and the sea.
When we arrived in the early afternoon, we were hungry and soon chose “Baked Alaska”, a great restaurant on the Columbia River where we ate well in sight of four huge ships lying offshore with ducks and gulls diving just offshore.
The blackened albacore tuna appetizer was fabulous and of course we finished the meal with Baked Alaska. A sticky hot fudge brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream brought to the table on fire made a memorable sweet impression!
But I digress.
We had planned to go to the Astoria Tower after lunch, but by the time we finished eating a thick fog covered the top of Cockscomb Hill and when we reached the top the visibility was a few feet. Good time to go see! However, not to be discouraged, my son and daughter-in-law began to climb the metal spiral stairs. Of course I followed him and unfortunately found myself huffing and puffing waaayyy before the top. Damned. Those 165 steps kicked my ass. The Astoria Column stands 595 feet tall and is the last coronation monument in a series of 12 monuments that were built between St. Paul, Minnesota and Astoria, Oregon in the early 1900s.
These 12 markers were the project of Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railroad, based in the Midwest. It was in 1925 that he announced that the time had come to “duly salute Astoria’s explorers and early settlers for their pivotal role in the stretch of the United States to the Pacific coast,” with the help of businessmen and scholars. So he did it.
The column sits atop Coxcomb Hill and is covered in 14 images in a bas-relief technique called sgraffito (skrafe-to). It has been restored several times over the years to try to preserve the painting and carvings. Although this technique works well in Mediterranean areas, the strong wind and rain in Astoria caused deterioration in a few years, so a waterproofing was installed to prevent further damage.
When I emerged to the top of the column and out into the cold, pine-infused air, the clouds were being swept right in front of us and the views of the ground far below, the sea and the mountains opened up. With the muted grays and greens of winter here. We stood together staring, as if a huge broom was pushing large balls of clouds out of the way.
However, within minutes, the clouds appeared to turn and close the viewing window.
After leaving the top of the hill, we stopped at the RiverSea Art Gallery, which was ranked the top gallery stop in Astoria, with good reason. Although there are many local artists represented, from jewelers to sculptors, and from photographers to painters, the exhibits attract attention and provoke unexpected colors, shapes and juxtapositions. We had a great time there before leaving to head to Fort Clatsop, the last stop on Lewis and Clark’s journey.
We arrived at Fort Clatsop (about a 10 minute drive from Astoria) just before a tour was scheduled to visit the fort where the recreation players (Lewis, Clark, Sakaweeja and their baby plus others) had been 33 of them that winter who stayed in the fort when) they were there answering questions from the public (us) about their winter there, their diet (they ended up with salmon and clearly yearned for moose or some kind of non-salmon), fears, experiences, and how eager to get back to home. It was fun hearing their views from their “time warp”.
When we finished there, we had enough time to slide down to Gearhardt another 15 minutes south. I love that beach there, as it is usually empty, as it was that night. We got there at low tide and were able to find $ 10 worth of sand intact! My son and daughter-in-law were delighted and so was I. It seems like the last few times I’ve been to shore I haven’t found a single perfectly round sand dollar. What a luxury!
When the sun went down, we finished our adventure and headed home. Each town along the coast has its own character and history, as well as offering shops to explore and nature to enjoy. I can not wait to return!