Astoria Column and Fort Columbia

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.

Fall at the Park

I know it's a little late for fall pictures, but we really did have a lovely fall.

And we always enjoy a trip to the park, regardless of the season.

Camping - Devil's Churn

On our last day of our great camping trip, we packed everything up and headed over to Coos Bay to see what we could see.  We didn't find much, but we probably just didn't know where to look.  We did find this huge mound of oyster shells:

We walked along the boardwalk a bit.  The kids had fun looking at all the boats.

Then we made our way back up North.  Bye-bye, Sunset Bay!  We had a blast!  Hope to see you again some day! 

On our way up the coast we spotted a nice little detour: Devil's Churn.  Of course we had to stop and check it out!  It was awesome!  It's this narrow chasm that the ocean flows into.  We had a lot of fun watching the waves crash against the rock.

We love surprise stops that have great rewards.  We look back fondly on this camping trip.  It's definitely been a favorite of ours.  We couldn't have asked for a better time.

Camping - Shore Acres and Cape Arago

Yes, this is a continuation of our camping trip, but we just had such a great time, I can't get all that in one post! 

Our second day of camping was spent exploring Shore Acres State Park and Cape Arago. 

Shore Acres once was a grand estate owned by a lumber baron.  His mansion once stood about where I was standing to take the picture above.  Sadly, due to a fire, the mansion is no longer there. 

But not to worry.  There is definitely plenty to look at.  Besides the great ocean views (and sometimes whale sightings), there is a beautiful botanical garden.  They have plants from all around the world and claim to have something in bloom just about everyday of the year.  It was very fun to explore this beautiful place.  

Libby is, as we say it, "geeking out" because she is in the middle of flower heaven, and this girls loves flowers.

Shore Acres was one of our favorite things about our camping trip.  It's definitely worth the stop if you are ever in the area.  We wish we could have been there during the holidays.  Apparently, they light up the gardens with Christmas lights!  Wouldn't that be fun?

Here are a couple pictures of the Cape Arago Light.

After visiting Shore Acres we continued down the Cape Arago Highway.  There is this great spot toward the end of the cape, an overlook, where you can see a crazy amount of sea lions hanging out on Simpson Reef!  They were so noisy!  And kind of smelly.

It was so fun to sea all these sea lions.  We were amazed!

What a beautiful and amazing place!  We had such a great time and were so glad we were able to go.