Day 73: Ocean Shores, WA to Astoria, OR

Watching the Ships Go By

Ocean 21 Passes By Our Window

While Bob was drinking coffee this morning, he was interrupted by the sound of this little guy who clearly wanted to get into the apartment below us.

Deer Tries to Gain Entry

When he (Bob that is, not the deer) walked onto the patio above, the deer looked up but was apparently perturbed that Bob would be of no use at all as a means of achieving this goal.

Deer Not At All Pleased with Bob

Anyway, we happily left Ocean Shores behind this morning and headed for Oregon and our last true stop on this Great Adventure-- Astoria, home to many an abandoned Cannery, Lewis & Clark Historic Sites, and the setting of the 1985 Goonies movie.

Here are the highlights of today's drive:



On the way we passed through Hoquiam, Washington which is the sister city to Aberdeen, WA (the Nirvana nirvana, due to native son Kurt Cobain).  We did not stop at Kurt Cobain landing, but we did make an interesting stop at the Polson Museum in Hoquaim.

The museum is housed in the "Polson Mansion" a 1920s very large house, built for a local timber barron's family, that counts as historic in Washington State. (On the East Coast, this is just another old house.)  While some of the collection is based on the family, it is largely a collection of local Gray's Harbor history.  As the museum website notes, "From photographs, antiques, equipment, and texts — you name it (or donate it) and we have it."

One particularly interesting piece was this sheet music cabinet, still clearly numbered, that belonged to a local opera singer who went on to make her name in New York City.

Sheet Music Cabinet

The Singer's name was Minnie Carey Stine.  She was a contralto who apparently came to NYC an unknown, and built a working career, as noted in the 1921 Music News article below:

Once done with the house, we headed outside to the "Railroad Camp" which was just a really neat barn filled with old really, really heavy stuff in different states of repair.

At the center was this steam boiler on rail trucks, which was a work in process.

Boiler (not working)

Looking Through the Boiler

We were told that the museum was considering bringing this boiler back to working order, but after examining the thickness testing done on the drum shell and looking over what was left, Bob was doubtful.  The inner tubes were completely missing as well and it was more of a shell than a boiler.

UT Readings on the Boiler Shell

Boilers aside (and checked off the list for today-- if you looked closely at the video, you'll see that we checked off cranes too), this Lamb SpeedTrak was the most impressive big heavy thing in the museum.  This particular example is thought to be the only one left-- and not only did it have a model number on it, it was serial-numbered "3."

Lamb SpeedTrak Big Heavy Stuff Mover

Closeup of the Trak Gears-- Impressive!

Our next stop was another museum-- this time in Astoria itself.  The Museum of Whimsy is worth a stop both for its strange and eclectic collection of, well, oddball stuff as well as for the spectacular old bank building in which it is housed.

Museum of Whimsy, Astoria OR

According to the website, "Its unique collections, assembled over many years with an eye to the curious, the whimsical and the fantastic, are displayed in the architectural splendor of architect, John Wicks' neo-classical bank building of 1924, refurbished in grand style and itself an integral part of the MOW experience."

There is no good way to describe this collection, so here are a few pictures that give you a sample of what we saw (though I think we both were far more interested in the building than the weird stuff).

Upper Floor of the Museum of Whimsy (MOW)
(The center floor was added later; originally this was open space in the middle and the side catwalks looked down on the bank floor)

Lisa Heads the Table at MOW

Lisa Reflects in and on The Museum of Whimsy

Bob Stands with a Stone Dog, rescued from a 19th century building in France

We left Whimsy for Cannery and headed over to our hotel which is right on the water next to the bridge over the Columbia River that connects Astoria with Washington State.  The hotel is located on the site of an old cannery (hence the name), and is a lovely place in which each room looks out over the water.

This is a very active waterway, and big ships line up here waiting to be released from the relative calm waters out into the Pacific to continue on with their journey.  Today we saw about 5 lined up.

Ships Lined Up on the Columbia River in Astoria, OR

When they actually move out of the Columbia River, we get a great view from our 4th floor window:




We hear that the front desk keeps a list of the schedule for each day, so you can follow along as they pass by, and even time your sightseeing so that you can watch any particular ship that catches your fancy when it makes its move. (Yes, Bob will be getting this list in the morning).

The hotel has one other "Bob" feature-- they keep a fleet of old cars, and as a complimentary service the car will take you to and from dinner at any restaurant in town.  Tonight we rode in a 1954 Mercury to dinner at a local brewery.  Both the food and the beer were great, as was our unique ride. (aBe-- see we don't just go to museums!)  The '54 had plenty of room in the back seat, with bench seats front and back.  It also had a three speed column shifter for the transmission (three on the tree!), which you don't see very often these days.  The engine was just barely up to the task with a 255 cubic inch flathead eight cylinder engine, but rode smooth!

1954 Mercury-- our Ride to Dinner Tonight

Tomorrow we'll try to catch the Riverfront Trolley, and do some walking around and sightseeing. And, we'll probably spend some time sitting on the patio of the hotel watching the ships go by.

--Bob & Lisa (Can you pick out the parts that Bob wrote?)