A Lewis and Clark day

I hadn’t really paid much attention to the achievements of Lewis and Clark till now.  OK, I knew they were explorers of the American West, but that was about the limit.  I suppose I’d heard their names mentioned frequently a few years ago, when the bicentennial of their expedition was celebrated.  However, here in the Northwest USA, their names crop up all over the place and it was time to learn more.

This morning, we began by visiting Coxcomb Hill, site of the Astoria Tower and from where we could get a superb view of the bridge way down below.  Those 4 miles seem more real when seen from this angle.

The Astoria Tower was constructed in the 1920s and features Lewis and Clark’s expedition amongst other notable Astoria events.  It’s pretty amazing in terms of the fine details included and the artwork is worthy of closer inspection.

We resisted the temptation to climb the tower for a better view of the landscape, our excuse being the poor visibility, of course.

Instead, we read the interpretive signs and began our study of the day’s heroes.

It was not far from here that the pair reached their goal and having done so, were able to turn around and return home.  We noted the Lewis and Clark National Park site nearby where they had spent the winter and, with Mary’s Golden Pass at the ready, we decided to head there for our next stop.

Here, we watched a short film about their journey and with increased respect for their achievements, felt motivated to find out more.  Fortunately the displays were well done and offered all the information in a very accessible form.

In particular, we were keen to find out who these men were and how they came to be asked to make this (at times) horrendous journey into the unknown.  We also learned what happened after they got back again – all our questions answered!

Sacagewea was the heroine and the focus of many stories.  This bronze of her with Jean-Baptiste, her child, stood in the woods on the path leading to the reconstruction of the shelter the expedition team made as shelter during the winter they spent here.

It was her room I stepped into first, recognising it as hers by the papoose hanging on the wall.

This whole exhibition and reconstruction was really well done and we felt that we’d done dear Lewis and Clark justice, not to mention Sacagewea.

As I was photographing interesting bark on the trees, Mark’s phone rang – Father’s Day greetings from Edward, back home, which quite made Mark’s day.  Bless…

Finally, time to hit the coast, here at the aptly named town of Seaside.  The weather was still a bit iffy, with “a  little bracing dampness in the air” (ref  The Adventures of Portland Bill, 1980s)

But we “sausaged through” (ref Mr Rosenblum’s List) and as we travelled further south, the weather improved.

We offered thanks to Oswald West, former Governor of Oregon who ensured that this whole coast remained accessible to the public and for whom this little outcrop is named.

Further on, we stopped at the Tillamook Creamery and caught sight of one or two of the quilt blocks on the Tillamook Quilt Trail.  Huge (and delicious) ice creams kept us quiet for a while!

By now, we were feeling ready for “home”, but couldn’t resist a short stop at Cape Foulweather where a couple had been watching whales offshore.  We stood and looked a while but saw nothing.

The seascape was spectacular.

But the coastline down where we were headed was better.  We hopped back into the car and drove a short while south to Newport, where our hotel awaited.  After such a long and satisfying day, we were ready to put our feet up.

Dinner tonight was popcorn shrimp at Gino’s on the Bayside in Newport.  Very good it was too!

Bridge to Bridge

The Maritime Inn in Gig Harbor, where we stayed last evening, had several photographs of Gallopin’ Gertie and Chrissie the receptionist told us of her mother in law’s first-hand account of the day the bridge collapsed.

So this morning, when we headed out to cross the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the warning of high winds and rain didn’t exactly boost Mary’s confidence.  After all, she could remember the tale of Tubby the dog.

Fortunately, we made it safely to the other side and were soon on our way to Olympia, where we hoped to take a look around the Washington State Capitol Building.

We’ve actually been here before, a few years ago on one of our family holidays with Edward but on that occasion, didn’t hang around to take a tour.

Though we’d planned to do that today, we still found ourselves hanging around because on a Saturday, the tours begin an hour later.  Still, we were there ready and waiting!

Our volunteer guide added greatly to the experience, explaining the origin of the Washington State Seal.  When the State became part of the Union, the task of designing the seal was given to a local jeweller who drew around his inkpot, then drew around a silver dollar coin to create an inner circle.  He placed a postage stamp with an image of George Washington in the centre and added the words around the band to finish.  Nice story and an interesting one to compare with the great lengths taken to create a logo these days!

We very much enjoyed the hour spent looking around and felt pleased we’d waited a while rather than rush on our journey south.  We were heading for the Columbia River and the border with Oregon today, which was quite a drive.

Sadly, our scenic, seaside ride was a misty, cloudy one and we saw very little of the coastal scenery.  Instead of seeing a spectacular coastline everything we saw looked pretty bleak.

Reviewing my photographs this evening, I couldn’t remember why I took this next photograph

Until I zoomed in, that is and spotted Dismal Nitch.

This is Lewis and Clark country and signs like this and the previous one, to Cape Disappointment, bring a smile to our face, particularly so on a wet Saturday afternoon!

There, in the background too, is the last bridge of the day: The Astoria-Megler Bridge over the Columbia River.

This bridge is quite something.  It’s 4 miles from one side of the river to the other and the crossing seems to take an age.  From the Washington side, the first stretch is undergoing some repair right now, so there are covers over part of it.

It then opens up and it’s possible to see where we’re going – my goodness, so far!

The centre part is more of a causeway, lower level and without an overhead structure.  The Astoria side comes into view and what looks like quite a steep incline towards the end.

The last part has a similar superstructure to the first, this being high enough to allow shipping to pass by underneath.  We spot the beige building on the left and think that it’s our hotel for the night.  Will we have a bridge view?

We do indeed!  We step into our room and look out of the window, not seeing anything to begin with, because it’s so high, so huge and we are looking underneath it.  But sure enough, there it is – magnificent!

I’m not sure I’d feel the same if I lived in quite such proximity to it!  But for just one night, it’s rather fun.

It overshadows the small Mexican restaurant which was recommended to us as well. 

We nearly have second thoughts when we see the sign – is this our sort of place?  We carry on regardless and have a great meal, including enormous Margaritas which hit the spot perfectly.

We return to our room and watch a bit of passing traffic.  What an interesting place to stay!

Tomorrow, we’re keeping everything crossed for a little sunshine, as we explore the Oregon coast, going south from here.  The forecast looks a bit iffy though.  Ho hum!!

Sunshine and sandals–at last!

Leaving Port Townsend this morning, my sense of direction and mental compass was totally shot – there are stretches of water here and there and I’m never quite sure what’s where.  Our route south, to Gig Harbour, eventually, began with this spectacular bridge as we headed for our first stop at Port Gamble.

An absolutely delightful small town with white picket fences and beautifully maintained homes along the main street, it looked especially lovely in the sunshine.

We’d read about the General Store and seeing it open, we felt we just had to step inside and take a look.  How pleased we were that we did!  Greeted with a cheery “good morning!” we were welcomed inside, and in no time at all had discovered the great breakfasts being served in the restaurant at the rear of the building.

We liked it so much in here that we even forgive the grocers’ apostrophe!

Now, our hotel, The Bishop in Port Townsend wasn’t so bad, but breakfast consisted of one individual serving of cereal, one individual carton of milk, one individual portion of orange juice, one cling-wrapped croissant, a foil wrapped pat of butter and an individual portion of jam (x 3) left outside our room in a basket.  Since we had just two dining chairs, we ate it from the coffee table – and a joyless affair it was too.  So when Mark started pining for corned beef hash, it didn’t take much for us all to agree that a second breakfast was in order.

Sometimes, it’s good to humour the driver - one never knows what might be around the corner.  The Quilted Strait is a great quilt shop and well worth fifteen minutes of our time!

Next stop was Poulsbo which was settled by Norwegians in the 1880s but continuing to maintain a Norwegian/Scandinavian character and sometimes referred to as “Little Norway”.  The main street was occupied by several businesses with a Scandinavian influence – the Viking Bank, Sluy’s bakery and Thor’s Needle and Hammer amongst others.  (You’ve guessed that last one was a tattoo parlour?)  Finding a couple of rare old US railroad histories in the well-stocked book shop, Mark was happy to have made that stop.

Last stop of the day was at Chicos, just outside Gig Harbour.  I frequently get emails from them, offering all kinds of deals of which I have no chance of taking advantage.  It was a different matter this morning, however.  For one day only, there was a money off deal which could be very useful, especially if they had the particular item I had in mind in my size.  I didn’t need long to decide if I wanted to take a look.

As it happened, I didn’t make use of the offer at all, because the three things I chose were all priced at 50% off anyway.  Good stuff!  Whilst I tried things on and pottered about the shop, Mark and Mary were entertained by the comings and goings, the stories of the staff and their customers and both felt they’d learned enough to write a book!

And here we are, at last.  The Maritime Inn at Gig Harbour.  Far more our style than The Bishop, we were greeted with a glass of wine from a Washington vineyard and breathed a sigh of relief on seeing our lovely room.  The sun’s shining and we’ve had a great dinner at The Tides Tavern, watching as a seaplane arrived to take a 60th birthday group out.

Mind you, those cushions are ganging up against us!!

Snow? In sandals?

The sun was shining and there was a bright blue sky this morning, revealing the mountains of the Olympic Peninsula to us for the first time.  We were planning to drive to Hurricane Ridge in the National Park so were thrilled to see such great weather today.

The Park Rangers offered friendly advice about deer, bears and unpredictable drivers on the road up the mountain.  Though we saw deer a plenty, including the tiniest fawn, sadly, no bears put in an appearance.  The road was good and it was hard to imagine that we’d driven from sea level to 5700ft in less than an hour.

 

That meant there was snow.  Lots of it!  And some of us had not come prepared…

Fortunately, the paths were cleared and though it wasn’t exactly baking hot up there, the sunshine was beautifully warm on the skin.

The views were magnificent.

A few people were going on snow-shoe walks, others were carrying inflatable donut type sledges and some were clearly setting out for a day of high level activity.  I was pottering about in my sandals!

But hey, what did it matter?  We enjoyed our time there, feeling so pleased that we’d made it up to the summit before the cloud came in.  As we prepared to leave, we could see it billowing up from the valley below.

We made our way back down to Port Angeles, where we’d read about a sculpture trail at the Art Gallery there.  We arrived to find that the summer exhibition of students’ work had just begun, too.  This turned out to be the highlight – the work was superb and all three of us found plenty to fascinate us.

The sculpture trail was a different matter.  Imagining something akin to a particular sculpture trail we love back home, we soon realised that this one was not quite in the same league.

Some of the exhibits had seen better days

Others were a little scary.  We soon became a little bored and began to play

One artist had written some notes to enlighten us about the inspiration which led to the work

I’m not sure if it added to my enjoyment of the artwork or not.

From here, we found our way back to Port Townsend, but made a small detour to Dungeness to take a look at the longest sand spit in the US

This was a huge contrast to this morning’s mountains – here we were looking at such a flat landscape, it barely shows on the horizon.

What a day! 

All aboard the Chetzemoka

We left Langley shortly after breakfast and headed for the ferry terminal, driving through wide open spaces and seeing few people about.

Perhaps that’s because they were all standing on top of this hill.  Why?

Anyway, we were soon aboard the Chetzemoka, a vessel bearing remarkable similarities to an Isle of Wight ferry.  Like excited schoolchildren, we leapt out of the car and went as high as we could to spend the whole journey on the “sun deck”, because the sun had indeed, got his hat on.

Half an hour later, we were landing at Port Townsend, on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula.

Five minutes later, we fetched up at our hotel for the next couple of nights, The Bishop.  In stark contrast to the Boatyard Inn, this is a Victorian themed place, and we have a “fireplace suite”.

It’s a bit like staying at your Nan’s.

Port Townsend itself is an interesting enough place with a couple of really good bookshops and and ice cream parlour – did we need more to keep us occupied for the afternoon?

A little patch of green with beautifully bright flowers had won some awards, too.

On our return to the hotel, we took a look at the guest book and discovered some pretty well known names amongst the previous visitors.  I wonder if they had the fireplace suite, too?