Just another day at the beach...

We began Thursday morning by driving through the forest once again, up the coast on Hwy-101, and to the bay where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean - Astoria, OR. What a neat town! The city is entered after driving across a long bridge, with a draw-bridge about halfway across...so neat :) The town itself reminded me a lot of San Francisco, with several very steep streets and a lot of Victorian-style homes.

Our first stop was the Visitor's Center, where a kind woman gave us a map and told us the most important sights to see while we were in town. On the top of our list of interests was the house from the movie "The Goonies." Honestly, I don't remember the kid's house very well, and apparently it looks a lot different now than it did in the movie (that's how it goes, I guess). Nonetheless, we did find the Goonies House, along with several other scenes from the movie (the bowling alley, the museum, the county jail/courthouse). Ironically, the scene from towards the end of the movie, where the Goonies are on the beach, was shot at Cannon Beach (where we had visited the night before). We also saw the school where the movie "Kindergarten Cop" was filmed.

After checking out the Goonies House, we headed to the docks. We had heard a boisterously loud sea lion while we were at the top of the hill in the residential area...and saw about 14 or 15 other sea lions laying out and playing on the docks. They were a fun sight to see!

Following the visit to the docks, we drove up incredibly steep streets, to the very top of the town. At the top of the hill is a park and Astoria Column...and area with magnificant views of the city, the bridge that leads across the Columbia River and into Washington, and the bay area.

Next, we drove to the downtown area of Astoria. There were several shops and eateries, but we didn't browse too much. Grabbed a quick lunch at Andrew and Steve's (I had a grilled cheese sandwich, Allison had a hot turkey sandwich) and then we were on our way back down the coast.

We drove through several small, surfside towns. One that I'd like to head back to while I'm here is called Seaside...I've heard it's a bit touristy, but hey, I'm a tourist. We ended our drive back at Cannon Beach (the beach we had spent some time at the previous evening). It's still on the top of my list of must-sees for Oregon. We spent some time walking through the art galleries and shops that are near the shore. Unfortunately, I didn't find a pharmacy that I could seek out employment at (haha!).

Then it was time for the beach! It was a bit chilly (I think the high was around 65F for Cannon Beach) and a bit windy, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We walked all the way down the beach to Haystack Rock, and then parked ourselves on the sand with a blanket to relax for awhile. Allison read her book; I napped. Although it was absolutely beautiful, we both got really cold and decided to walk back after only about 45 minutes. I would guesstimate that it was almost a mile to a mile and a half walk back to where we had entered the beach...but we made the trek through the squeaky sand and wind back to the car. By the time we had driven all the way home, we were both absolutely exhausted! We had elaborate plans to cook a pasta dinner, but settled on frozen pizza instead. It was a busy day, but a fun day :)