Astoria OR - 2019

We are now in Astoria OR, staying at the Kampers West Kampground and plan on staying here from 22-25 Sep 2019.  The park was just a park, but it did have fish cleaning areas and dog areas, but other than that it was just a park.  Astoria on the other hand was...well, Astoria has a special spot in my heart.  I don't know why, but I always loved it.  Maybe because of the adventures it has seen.  And think, it never left.   This is only my second time here in Astoria, the first when I was a little fisherman, but now I have grown up wanting to be a fisherman.  But let's not get side tracked.  Astoria has a lot of history, it's at the mouth of the mighty Columbia River and have seen plenty of shipwrecks in its day.   The mouth of the Columbia is one mean bitch.  ohh, that's right, I said it.  It is so mean, that you have to have a professional pilot come aboard your ship and bring it thru the mouth of the river.  This is also one of the places the Coast Guard practice in rough seas.   I don't remember how big the waves can get, but I do remember, they can engulf a ship, and spit it out as a kayak if not handle right.  Get my drift?  Oh and did you know this is the only place in the lower 48 that was attacked by a foreign government (I mean conventional war not this terrorist crap.)  That's right, a Japanese submarine attacked Fort Stevens on June 12, 1942.  But more on that in a little bit.
So the first place we decided to hit was the Columbia River Maritime museum.  And as a maritime museum, they had boats on display, including a floating lighthouse of sorts.  It was a ship that would anchor in the mouth somewhere so ships knew where not to go.  The one they had on display was the Columbia, pictured here. 
In the museum, they had a Coast Guard boat display similar to what they would encounter in the mouth.  Click on the picture to get a bigger view (that is with any picture of course). 
Here is the rest of the collection of pictures we took of the ship and of the museum.
Our next stop was lunch and then off to Fort Stevens.  I don't remember a lot about the Fort, other than it was a Fort. 

But what I do remember is the story that was told to us about the attack.   I think what was told was the Japanese sub surfaced to attack the fort, but every round they shot, missed.  When this happened, it was just after a party or something and everyone at the fort, (not many were stationed there) was drunk or passed out.  So we never returned fire.  Probably a good thing. (They might have shot their foot off.).  The Fort itself was interesting with Big cannons that would play hide and seek.  You read that correctly, The guns would hide behind a wall and when they needed to fire them, the guns would raise up, supposedly, surprising the enemy (assuming soldiers at the fort weren't drunk at the time). 
We walked around and saw the different structures and where there used to be structures too.  During our walk, we saw an elk that wasn't really afraid of people, just cautious.  We stopped and watched him walk by us to the other side of the trail.  While we were in the area, we drove out to the point to where you can see the ocean and the mouth of the river.  It wasn't very rough that day, put still pretty.    Well here are the pictures we took of the Fort and the Point.  Please enjoy.  We were going to ride the Trolley today, but on the way to the Museum, we say a Cruise ship in port.  Whoever would want to take a cruise ship into the mouth of the Columbia is beyond me.  I know I wouldn't.  But anyway, since the ship was in port, there was a bunch of people riding the trolley, so we figured we would try it tomorrow.

So Now it's tomorrow and off to the trolley we go.  It will take you from one end to the other and back just like any other trolley I guess, but what I meant to say is it will take you across town and back along the river.  Yeah, that's it.  The Trolley itself was one of those old timer trolley's but with an upgrade of a generator trailer to give it power.  Along the way, we got a nice picture of the Astoria Bridge.  The bridge is 4.1 miles long with the main truss span of 1,232 feet.  Giving it the longest "continuous truss" in the nation.  Cool.  So the train ride itself was nice and gave us some good info about the town and it's sea life like the seals that like to hang on one portion of an marina on the east side of town. 

After the train ride, we headed to the Astoria Column. (a tip from the train ride).   You can see all around from here. Of course, it has to be a clear day.  If it's foggy, then you will get to see clouds, close up.  For us, it was a clear day and you are able to go to the top of the Column.  Just have to climb a few steps to get there (only 164, piece of cake).  Here is the pictures we took while standing high.  From here we just drove the area and then headed back to the trailer to get ready for tomorrow.  We head to eastern Washington (30 miles north of Hermiston) for another Grand Design Rally.  Here is all the pictures we took of Astoria, enjoy and we will see you at the rally.