This area was also heavily armed with forts during the Civil War and WWI and II. It protects the mouth of the Columbia River. There is a ship that wrecked on the beach and appears at low tide. Very eerie.
Astoria has a tower with interesting carvings around the outside depicting the history of the Northwest. It has recently been refurbished and was ready for its grand reopening. There are 164 steps up to the top. We didn't get very far. It gave us both a very odd tippy feeling, so we mostly enjoyed it from the outside.
And there was another cannery to explore. Not much better than the first one, but it had a better movie. Now you know where Charlie lives.
When we left Warrenton and Fort Stevens, we did drive down the coast, and it is indeed beautiful. We took a turn-off from the scenic drive to a more scenic drive because the lady at the visitor center assured us that they do it "all the time with our trailer and it is no problem" Hmmm, trailer does not equal an RV. It was really pretty, but very narrow with low hanging trees. But the coastline was very pretty, and we stopped and ate our lunch at a very pretty lighthouse. The rocks near the lighthouse are home to several kinds of sea birds. Very noisy place!
This is the Cape Mears Lighthouse. It was much easier to climb to the top of this one, although a bit crowded at the top.
When we got back to the regular scenic drive, we passed the Tillamook Dairy. There were lots of cars and RV's parked in a very big lot, so we turned around to see what there was. Pretty cool!
We went upstairs where you can watch the packaging process. Huge blocks of aged cheese get chopped, weighed, sealed in plastic and boxed right before your very eyes. And then you can go downstairs and taste some of their cheese. And then you can go through the store and buy some! And lots of other cow and cheese related and not so related gifts. A person could get all their Christmas shopping done in one place! Are you all worried?
We stopped in Albany, Oregon. It is indeed named after Albany, New York, except that they sort of pronounce it wrong. The RV park was very nice, but things didn't go very well the first night. More problems with the leveling jacks and noisy neighbors.
After a mobile RV repair did what he could we decided to go in search of some of that Oregon Pinot Noir we have heard about. Oh, yes! It is very, very good. Albany is in the Williamette Valley so we chose just a few of the many, many wineries and really enjoyed ourselves.
This is one that Ben's co-workers liked and we agree! We were in McMinnville and it happened to be the monthly Art and Wine Saturday. We roamed around the historic business area enjoying the shops, the wine, and our dinner.
This area is also know for its covered bridges. We picked up a self guided driving tour of the bridges and enjoyed an afternoon of driving the country roads finding the bridges. It was very hot, in the 90's, so many of the creeks that run under the bridges were also popular swimming holes. As we drove around we expected to see hillsides with the vineyards, but were surprised to see lots of wheat and hay, and lots of really big tree farms, nurserys, berry farms, and rows and rows of nut trees. Hazelnuts. Who knew!
We have made a reservation for an RV park in Yellowstone, and we have some time to make some short stops in towns heading toward Montana, so we just went a little further up the road and stopped in an RV park in McMinnville. More wine!
But it also had the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum within walking distance of the park. It was really something. There were all kinds of planes from several periods of history in one building and the other building was devoted to the Space Program.
The museum is the new home of the Spruce Goose. It really is huge. Too big to be able to get it into one picture!
And, of course, we found more wineries. We needed to go to a bigger shopping area, so went to the outskirts of Portland, and stopped on the way back in two tasting rooms. Everyone has been very friendly, and is very interested in our trip and that we are from New York. We were talking to a couple who were traveling also and were on their way to pick up a cruise to Alaska. Somewhere in the conversation, Jim and the man got to talking about being in the Navy. Turns out they were on the Kittyhawk at the same time. Of course there are about 5000 men on an aircraft carrier, so they didn't know each other then, but it was cool.
Our book of scenic drives will be used again when we leave here. We are headed up to the Columbia River to see the Columbia River Gorge and head east through Washington toward Idaho and Montana.
Jim and Sue
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