And... the good stuff...
So, this weekend was the start of a heatwave here in Portland. bloomerwedgies had the bright idea to get out of town and head to the beach for a few days. I agreed that this was a brilliant idea, so I made some arrangements on Friday and we were off and on our way by noon on Saturday.
We stopped and picked up Tabitha and David on the way (They are longtime friends of bloomerwedgies and fairly recent friends of mine) and headed out to Astoria. The drive out was very nice with lots of chatter and good times. Well, it was mostly nice. Shortly after we picked up our passengers, we found ourselves under assault from a very cranky hunk of brie that David had brought along. That was one potent cheese! It was wrapped in a bag and sealed in a cooler, yet was still able to make our eyes water! We made an emergency stop to wrap it in an extra plastic bag which reduced, but did not eliminate the smell. Wow.
At any rate, we arrived at our hotel at about 2:15 or so, which was 45 minutes before check-in. We wanted to unload the car before heading out for further adventures, so opted to wait it out until the room was ready.
At 3:00, we got our keys and unloaded the car. We then headed out to the Astoria column to eat some lunch, including the renegade cheese of doom. Tabitha and David had also brought along some locally made salami with lots of fennel, some pate, shortbread, avocados (ew) and some olive bread. It was all really delicious (except the avocados. ew.) and we enjoyed our feast with a fantastic view!
Tabitha wants you to have sample her meat!
And this was the view from our picnic table.
After eating, I climbed up to the top of the column:
It was a bit hazy out, so the pics of the views from up there weren't as great as I would have hoped. But it was gorgeous. It was quite a little workout climbing up to the top, and a little creepy climbing in that tiny little spiral staircase with a bunch of other folks walking up and down at the same time. But it was fun.
After that, we headed out in search of shipwrecks. Well... just the one, actually. We got lost and got into a car accident on the way, but we did eventually find our way there and meandered about and looked at the remnants of the century old wreckage.
After that, I put my camera away for most of the rest of the trip. We headed out to the end of the peninsula and were bombarded by Valkyrie pelicans and played in the sand dunes a bit. We had a lovely salmon dinner with seating that overlooked the Columbia River, after which we headed back to the hotel and got some sleep.
Sunday, we visited the Columbia River Maritime Museum for several hours. Afterwords, we headed up to Long Beach where we had lunch, walked out to the beach and laid out a sheet to lounge on. While there, we saw a dead baby seal with no head. It was very odd and sad. A bit later, we noticed a small army of horses coming towards us out of the mists and decided it was time to hit the road.
We walked back into town, did a little bit of candy shopping, and hit the road back home. It was a lovely, relaxing weekend away from the heat. I hope your weekend was as good as ours!
We stopped and picked up Tabitha and David on the way (They are longtime friends of bloomerwedgies and fairly recent friends of mine) and headed out to Astoria. The drive out was very nice with lots of chatter and good times. Well, it was mostly nice. Shortly after we picked up our passengers, we found ourselves under assault from a very cranky hunk of brie that David had brought along. That was one potent cheese! It was wrapped in a bag and sealed in a cooler, yet was still able to make our eyes water! We made an emergency stop to wrap it in an extra plastic bag which reduced, but did not eliminate the smell. Wow.
At any rate, we arrived at our hotel at about 2:15 or so, which was 45 minutes before check-in. We wanted to unload the car before heading out for further adventures, so opted to wait it out until the room was ready.
At 3:00, we got our keys and unloaded the car. We then headed out to the Astoria column to eat some lunch, including the renegade cheese of doom. Tabitha and David had also brought along some locally made salami with lots of fennel, some pate, shortbread, avocados (ew) and some olive bread. It was all really delicious (except the avocados. ew.) and we enjoyed our feast with a fantastic view!
Tabitha wants you to have sample her meat!
And this was the view from our picnic table.
After eating, I climbed up to the top of the column:
It was a bit hazy out, so the pics of the views from up there weren't as great as I would have hoped. But it was gorgeous. It was quite a little workout climbing up to the top, and a little creepy climbing in that tiny little spiral staircase with a bunch of other folks walking up and down at the same time. But it was fun.
After that, we headed out in search of shipwrecks. Well... just the one, actually. We got lost and got into a car accident on the way, but we did eventually find our way there and meandered about and looked at the remnants of the century old wreckage.
After that, I put my camera away for most of the rest of the trip. We headed out to the end of the peninsula and were bombarded by Valkyrie pelicans and played in the sand dunes a bit. We had a lovely salmon dinner with seating that overlooked the Columbia River, after which we headed back to the hotel and got some sleep.
Sunday, we visited the Columbia River Maritime Museum for several hours. Afterwords, we headed up to Long Beach where we had lunch, walked out to the beach and laid out a sheet to lounge on. While there, we saw a dead baby seal with no head. It was very odd and sad. A bit later, we noticed a small army of horses coming towards us out of the mists and decided it was time to hit the road.
We walked back into town, did a little bit of candy shopping, and hit the road back home. It was a lovely, relaxing weekend away from the heat. I hope your weekend was as good as ours!