A Column, a Cannery, and a Castle (well a big old house)
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| Astoria, OR (Taken from Viewing Deck on the Astoria Column) |
We woke to a beautiful day in Astoria, OR today and once again spent the morning looking at the boats go by out our window. They were still lined up in the harbor, and I guess waiting their turn to head under the bridge and out to sea.
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| Ships Waiting to Head Out to Sea (Taken from our hotel parking lot) |
Our first stop today was a local glass studio where we picked up a couple of Christmas ornaments (one in Hokie orange and maroon of course), and a nice drinking glass. We have stopped at several glass studios on our journey, but this one was definitely the best—the owner and chief artist was right there and we had a nice chat. The glass shop was in a re-purposed car alignment shop that was just perfect fr glass blowing, since with the garage doors it, the ventilation was excellent.
Our next stop was the Astoria Column. This 125 foot tower contains 164 steps—which we dutifully climbed to reach the viewing tower at the top.
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| Astoria Column, 125 feet high, 164 steps (and we stepped on each one - twice (once up and once down!)) |
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| Viewing Platform on the Astoria Column |
You could see the entire town from the top, as well as the full waterway and all the ships waiting.
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| Ships in the Columbia River (taken from viewing deck of Astoria Column) |
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| Ship waiting for the tide to go out so it can fit under the bridge |
The main picture in the post is also taken from the viewing deck of the Column, and is a great view of the entire town. If you look closely, you'll see a white pick-up truck parked on the side of the road in that picture-- that's a guy who is too cheap to pay the $5 fee (which supports upkeep of the Column) to park.
We were not so cheap-- as you can see, M waited for us patiently as we enjoyed the view from the top of the tower:
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| Bob & Lisa on the Astoria Column with M below in the parking lot |
This being Oregon, they are a bit looser than other parts of the country and actually encourage throwing things from the top of high open spaces. In this case, little wooden gliders—which were being sold in the gift shop for $1 each, but were also scattered all over the ground for easy pick-up and reuse. The idea was that you write your name on the glider, toss it from the top of the tower, and then search the ground for it to see how far it flew. What actually happened is that most people just tossed them and left them for the next guy. Loads of fun, but probably not the profit-center they were hoping to create.
Of course, Bob & I used the recycled gliders—but we did personalize them so that people coming after us would know we were there.
Here is the first go with the Hokies glider:
And this is the Broncos glider, which may have had a bit of help getting to the farthest possible landing spot (and was intentionally left for others with the label side up!).
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| Take That Seahawks Fans! |
Our next historic stop of the day was the Hanthorn Cannery museum, which is an old Bumble Bee processing plant and the oldest still standing in Oregon. The exhibits highlight some of the old equipment used in canning tuna, and some fun old packaging.
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| Tuna Canning Machine |
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| Tuna Processing Equipment - multiple blades cut the tuna into small bite size portions to fit in the cans. |
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| Lisa with Vintage Bumble Bee Cans |
In addition to going through the museum, we walked along the dock here—and were surprised at the lack of any type of rail. You got a great view of the ships from here as well.
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| Ships as seen from Pier 39-- the old cannery dock |
There were even ladders you could use to climb right into the water, but after a brief moment of consideration that idea was discarded.
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Bob thought about touching water here, but decided against it.
(Bob Not Touching Water #1) |
From old cannery we headed to old house--the Captain George Flavel House Museum. The house was built in 1886 by ship captain and banker (guess which profession funded the house) George Flavel, and held in his family until the death of his last surviving daughter. At that point, a grandchild decided to give it away to the State, which later gave it to the local historical society to use as a museum.
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| George Flavel House, Astoria, OR |
The house was giant—in proportion with 14 foot ceilings and impressive doors to match, as well as in area at 11,600 square feet of living space, plus a carriage house.
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Dining Room in George Flavel House
(I guess they couldn't decide on a single chair pattern) |
There were pocket doors here, and they were massive. We surmised that they must have had servants to open and close them, as no self-respecting rich person would want to do that on a regular basis.
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Now That's a Pocket Door!
(Bob adds scale to the pocket doors in a room with 14 ft ceilings) |
This chair caught my eye too—I’ve never seen anything like it. I couldn’t find any information about it, but it is definitely interesting.
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| Mystery Chair |
With our history fix done for the day, we headed off to our second favorite pastime—gallery & jewelry store hopping. (OK—my second favorite pastime.) I completed my local stone collection with these examples of Oregon Sunstone. Sunstone is native to the state, and is crystallized basalt lava from thousands of years ago. It comes in several colors—but I liked the variations on red/orange the best. The finest stones are the deepest red, but I thought the large light one was particularly lovely.
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| Oregon Sunstone for Lisa's Native Stone Collection |
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| The Most Brilliant, but Least Expensive of the Lot |
While wandering around town we were reminded that in some places in this country technology has not yet completely taken over.
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| Anachronism |
And speaking of old stuff still being used, tonight our ride to dinner (another brewery) was a 1951 Plymouth Special Deluxe. This one still had its original wool upholstery (in great shape!), and 48,000 original miles.
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| 1951 Plymouth Special DeLuxe, All Original, with just 48,000 Original Miles |
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| Special DeLuxe Nameplate |
When we got back to the hotel, Bob got his list of ships that will be passing by our window. We’ll do a bit more exploring tomorrow—with an eye to the schedule. There is one boat out there that is full of Subarus—which is far more interesting cargo than wheat, but they probably look the same as they pass the window.
--Lisa
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