Wednesday, August 28, 2013, From Long Beach, WA, to Astoria, OR (Home of The Goonies)

Started the morning with a brisk walk to the beach from our campground - Sand Castle RV Park, Long Beach, WA - a short half mile from our coach through unspoiled grass dunes.

Dune buggies left circles in the sand.

The beach was deserted so we tried unleashing Sam. He obviously loved it based on the way he ran circles in the sand. Fortunately for me, he was a good dog and came back when we called him - it's doubtful I could have caught him without his cooperation.

Yes, the water was icy.

We drove to Astoria, OR, after lunch. The Astoria–Megler Bridge is 21,474 feet in length. It is the longest continuous truss bridge in North America. It was built to withstand 150 mph wind gusts and river speeds of 9 mph. We knew the bridge had a long metal truss span and thought this was it at the Washington side. We couldn't have been more wrong!

The number one attraction in Astoria is the Column - we made it our first stop (after the Visitor's Center). There were 164 steps to the observation platform but what a view!

The view was fantastic!

That's Washington in the distance across the Columbia River. If you look very closely, you can just see the metal span we crossed first.

Looking down from the top.  Our tiny car looks even tinier.

They sell wood gliders for people to launch from the top of the column. Once you started looking you could see airplanes on the roofs of every building and tree in the area below.

We watched The Goonies many times with the kids growing up, so a visit to the house used in the movie seemed like a good idea. Like a lot of movie sets, the reality was difficult to match with the movie. It made me wonder what it was about this house that made it movie worthy.

We drove across Young's Bay to Warrenton and Hammond. Sam had the chance to meet some new friends at an off-leash dog park that we found.  

We went to the end of the Clatsop Spit where we found a lot of people watching ships heading out to sea from the river. Joani did not see the attraction and it was a bit nippy with the wind, so we headed back to Astoria.

Astoria is very colorful.  So many cute houses!

We parked the car and walked around the old town. There was a lot of interesting architecture that caught Joani's eye.

The museum was closed, but the grounds were beautiful.

The sirloin steak special caught our eye at the Wet Dog Cafe. The unobstructed view of the river through open windows and the micro-brewed Lincoln Lager were a bonus.

So many microbreweries in this town!

We had a nice view of the river and very picturesque ship.