Today we went into Astoria. It is a gorgeous city cozied right up to the end of the Columbia River, the filming location for the movie “The Goonies” and a locale chock-full of architecturally magnificent wood residences. Peggy’s family spent some time in Astoria when she was a kid because her dad had some contracts here and I find it easy to discern why she loves the place.

Since Oregon, and particularly the Columbia River, played crucial roles in the now flagging old-growth timber business, all the structures here were built of wood. Not a lot of cast-in-place concrete or masonry buildings can be found in town. However, the craftsmen that built the houses were very proficient at their trades because the hundred year old structures are still standing and they look very spiffy.

We drove our rather large truck up and down the narrow streets of the hill above the commercial district, gawking at the hundreds of gorgeous houses. Only a few people gave us the fisheye for holding up traffic while we were ogling the structures. They were mostly very nice about it. While making a nuisance of ourselves we also spotted many deer living in the abundant vegetation between houses. They were happily nibbling on expensive, labor intensive landscaping bushes and flowers, only to scamper away when we got too close with our noisy truck.

We worked our way up the huge hill above the business district, ultimately ending up at the Astoria Column. The Column should actually be called the Tower because it doesn’t hold anything up. The Column itself is located on the highest point of the surrounding terrain and truly stunning views of the Columbia, Lewis & Clark and Young Rivers watershed areas. Huge freighters, tankers and barges look tiny as they make their ways into and from the ports of Oregon and Washington. The Column itself is spirally decorated with historical scenes from the area although some of the scenes may be interesting to white folks, they may appear to be a sanitized version of the re-allocation of Native American lands into the hands of timber, fishing and mining interests. Either way, it is still very pretty. Spry young people and those in good physical shape can take a long spiral staircase within the Column and arrive at a small observation platform at the top. Just when we looked up at these hardy folks we spotted a bald eagle pair flying above the humans. They had the best view.

On our way out of town, we made a stop at Henderson’s Smokehouse to see if they had any kippered seafood for us to add to our larder. There were several people inside shopping with only one person behind the counter who seemed overwhelmed by making more than one transaction every quarter hour. Fortunately for us, it gave us ample time to check out the prices for smoked fish attractively displayed in the refrigerated cases. Once we spotted prices in excess of $40 a pound for smoked salmon, we faded to the back and finally chickened out. We will continue to search for the kippered snacks we get at grocery stores that have prices closer to $2 a tin.

We took a few photos in Astoria. To see ’em, click the link. https://photos.app.goo.gl/frnQvHKfuVbH4WVJ7