Astoria to Portland

We left Astoria in high spirits. The evening was great, and the town was cute. On our way to Portland, we stopped at Fort Clatsop, the turminus of Lewis and Clark's trip. It was BEAUTIFUL, and a cool recreation of the fort.

The fort. Sort of a hippie shot, but it happens.

Here's where they landed. Gorgeous. No wonder they stopped.

The trip, for the most part, was uneventful and beautiful. Pacific Northwest is gorgeous, as a rule, I think.

Our Portland plan was to head to Uncle Mike's house, and rock out the whole mooching off family thing, and since his son, Monica's cousin, Zach, was having his birthday during our stay, we stopped at a foodie place to get a gift certificate. It was a cool place, but I learned my first lesson of foodie culture: you have to wait a long time while the snarky clerk talks on the phone.

Anywho, we made it to Mike's, were made right at home.

Here's one of our hosts:

Coos Bay To Astoria

It was bittersweet, leaving Coos Bay. It's a nice place, albeit a little sleepy for my tastes. After seeing Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the original) at an awesome classic theatre in the town, there wasn't much else to do, aside from sit around and eat, which, honestly, is a really cool thing... that gets repetitive after a while. So off we went!

The next two days were basically a Goonies pilgrimage. We went to haystack rock, (way in the distance)

And the Bowling Alley from the movie:

And the jail where the Fratelli's escaped:


It was pretty awesome, and I actually watched the movie that evening, so I knew what we were talking about.

Also, on the drive, we went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. THAT. WAS. GREAT.