A couple of months ago, we took the kids to Astoria to visit the column and go across the bridge to Washington.
Beautiful views along the way.
The kids are ready for an adventure.
This is a view of the bridge we were going to go across. It was so fun that it was right down there close to the water.
The Astoria Column is a 125 foot tower that overlooks the city of Astoria and the mouth of the Columbia River. The spiraled pictures are a sgraffito frieze depicting important events in the area's history focusing on the discovery of the Columbia River and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
At the little gift shop there you can buy an airplane to throw off of the top of the column. The kids had a lot of fun doing this. Hudson's went so far we weren't able to retrieve it.
Lincoln had fun throwing his airplane around the lawn in front of the column.
In the picture above you can see Saddle Mountain. Guys, that's the mountain I hiked up last May. That one there! That huge one!
And here we are, going across the bridge into Washington.
After crossing the bridge we headed to Cape Disappointment. There is a short hike to the lighthouse there.
Next, we headed East to Fort Columbia State Park. This is a historical park with many buildings still standing including the battery, officer's quarters, and barracks.
And yes, I had to take a picture of Saddle Mountain from the Washington side of the Columbia River. Yup, I hiked that.
My kids LOVE exploring these old places. We were disappointed to learn, however, that you can tour the wood structures (officer's quarters, barracks, guard house) but they just happen to be closed the day we went. Bummer.
Being silly - something our family excels at.
This is the American Empress docked at Astoria. You can do a river cruise on this thing. Wouldn't that be fun? It certainly was impressive looking.
That was certainly a fun adventure day. We didn't care much for Cape Disappointment, but we had great fun at the column and the fort. We went home tired and happy to have seen all that we saw.
