The Ocean Breeze

We continued working our way west this morning until we reached the mouth of the Columbia river at the Pacific Ocean and Astoria, OR. On our way out we did get a chance to be up close and personal with two Navy destroyer ships on their way into Portland for the Rose Festival. I’m not quite sure what the Rose Festival is all about, but I’m sure I’ll find out more on that tomorrow and Saturday. We docked on a rainy morning in Astoria to begin our second to last day of excursions with a bus tour around the city and historic Fort Clatsop.

Apparently Astoria is filled with historical sites, as every other house we passed was marked as a historic landmark. Apparently doing this gives you a slight tax break however you do have to follow certain upkeep regulations to maintain your status. The houses were mainly a beautiful Virtorian style and were a variety of colors that stood out on the gray rainy backdrop.

We visited the Astoria column, a large tower on top of a hill overlooking the river and surrounding area and marking the end of the Railroad that lead out to the Pacific. The column itself has several murals painted on the sides of it that commemorate several memorable events significant to Astoria and inside has 164 steps leading to the top observation platform and on a good day a beautiful view of the surroundings. Unfortunately today was not really a beautiful day and

as I emerged onto the top of  the tower I was nearly blown off by all the wind rushing across the platform.

We finished up the tour by visiting Fort Clatsop which is the location where Lewis and Clark spent the winter after making it out here to the Pacific Ocean. It was only fitting that we visit this area after following along with their journey all the way down the river, and it gave me a chance to pause and reflect on the tremendous accomplishments of their expedition. To have overcome the daunting task of navigating the western United States and to have done it so thoroughly and quickly is truly amazing.

In the afternoon I continued my quest for local brews and stopped in at the Rogue Public House. While Rogue is not only located here in Astoria it is local to the Oregon area and that’s close enough for me. I enjoyed first a Jasmine Honey Mead which was the sweetest beer I had ever tasted. I almost didn’t believe it was beer at first. Following that I switched back to my standard IPAs and ended up enjoying the Brutal IPA the most which was exceptionally smooth and very pine flavored.

Tomorrow we head back east into Portland to finish up our trip, I’ll be staying in town all day Saturday as well so I’ll probably have updates for both days and will most likely have many things to share. Check back for more tomorrow night.