April 4th and 5th 2004
After a most restful stay in Brookings we continued our journey up the coast of Oregon. We drove up to Astoria on Sunday, and on up to Seattle on Monday.
The drive up to Astoria was a lot of fun. We had only been on the coast as far north as Reedsport, so the rest of way was a new experience for us.
One of the unusual things we noted was the large number of sand dunes along the coast; at one point there was a small forest which appeared to be growing right in the middle of a large, sandy area.
Another interesting site was at Depoe Bay, site of the self-proclaimed “worlds smallest harbor”. Certainly looks small enough to win that title.
The coast was a bit more developed than I anticipated; strip malls and reduced speed zones made the journey a bit longer than expected, though the overall beauty of the Oregon coast made the drive well worth the effort.
One downside of the trip through Oregon was that my allergies acted up worse than they have in a long time. We believe this plant, which we think is goldenrod, was the primary culprit. There were literally acres of this plant alongside the road throughout much of the day.
Astoria is at the northwest tip of Oregon, and one key feature is a very large bridge that spans the Columbia River and connects Washington and Oregon. There is a nice park at one end of town, and from there you can see the confluence of the Columbia and Youngs rivers. It’s also the home of the Astoria Column, an historical monument/marker; I’m told the views from the top are spectacular.
Driving from Astoria to Seattle via 101 gave us a look at a part of Washington we hadn’t seen before. Our route naturally took us by Aberdeen, so we revisited one of our old haunts, and drove on to the Pacific Ocean from there. We forgot that driving on the beach is allowed in this area, so we took a short drive down the beach and then stopped to collect shells. We found a number of sand dollar fragments, and even a couple of whole ones!
We reached Seattle by 4pm, in plenty of time for our planned dinner, but the allergies had taken their toll and we rescheduled for the next day. After resting a while, we did venture out and found some nice views of Seattle from Queen Anne hill. We’ll close this entry with the promise of some photos from Seattle in an upcoming post.