Don't tell anyone, but it doesn't actually rain that much in Portland

Remind me I wrote that in February.

Let's start at the end... the sunset tonight over the Pacific Ocean


That was just south of Cannon Beach, OR. Today we woke up to some fog in Portland, but it seemed to be burning off quickly, so we headed to Astoria, of Goonies fame. We had fog off and on the whole way there. But when we got there, it was beautiful and sunny. Our first stop was the Columbia River Maritime Museum where we learned that we never ever under any circumstances want to be on a boat of any size at all anywhere near where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. Something like 2,000 wrecks there in the last 200 or so years. You wouldn't have known it by the calm water today.

Then we drove around some of the streets up the hill and saw some beautiful Victorian homes, and saw some that needed some work. Then off to the Rogue Brewpub on the river for lunch. It was in one of the old cannery buildings. There aren't really any operating salmon canneries left in Astoria because of overfishing and the damming of the river.

Then we headed down the coast to Seaside (the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail)

Next stop was Ecola State Park. People were surfing. It might not have been raining, but don't let me give you the impression it was warm. These people were not sane.

Then the Ecola Point Lookout...

Okay, one more, this was around the Ecola Point lookout, too, just a little later after Dennis walked and I drove from the beach back up to the point.


Well, we're really looking forward to seeing much of the Hubele bunch at Thanksgiving - I can't believe it will be here so soon! Then, just 2 weeks after that we move in to our house! Everything is still on track there.

We're also anxiously awaiting news of a new Smith baby. We can't wait to find out if we're buying pink or blue Christmas presents!