Our Coastal Adventure

Since our first adventure of the weekend didn't pan out like we had hoped, we came up with a new plan. Kevin worked last Monday so this was our "Memorial Day weekend". He intentionally post-poned his holiday in hopes of better weather and fewer crowds. So we figured a last minute camping trip to the coast was doable without reservations.

We've seen quite a bit of the Oregon coast, but had not yet been to the northwest corner and so we decided to explore Astoria and the surrounding area.


Astoria is a maritime town and is located near the mouth of the Columbia River. It's rich in history and offers visitors quite a bit to do. Hollywood has filmed parts of many movies there (Short Circuit, Free Willy, Point Break, Kindergarten Cop, Into the Wild and The Goonies to name a few). This weekend was the 25th anniversary celebration of The Goonies. Kevin can't believe I haven't seen the movie...I've got it in the Netflix queue.



This house is the "Goonies" house...


We made it in time to eat lunch at the Sunday market


These are the flowers I would have bought if we hadn't been camping!


We walked around town and also took the trolley for a bit. There is a 4.1 mile bridge that crosses the Columbia River...this picture is not one I took.


Here are some I took...It was a very gray day.










We even saw some California Sea Lions that like to hang out at this particular spot.


After a couple hours in Astoria, we headed to Fort Stevens State Park to get a campsite.


There were sooooooo many mosquitoes, so we quickly headed to the beach. We ended up driving about 20 miles south to Ecola State Park and ate our dinner there. Here are the girls sporting mosquito nets!











Then we returned to the campground, but walked the trail to the beach to see the shipwreck and the sunset. I was shocked at how black the sand was...I've never seen sand that black.



We woke up to swarms of mosquitoes, so we broke camp and headed to the south jetty for breakfast.



Then we drove back to Astoria and crossed the 4.1 mile bridge and spent the next couple hours at Long Beach in Washington...