Saturday, August 31, 2013, Saturday Market in Downtown Portland, OR

On our first venture into the downtown area, we tried to find a visitor's center to help us make the most of our time in Portland, OR. We didn't find one, but we happened upon an old building on the National Register of Historic Places with a very helpful guard. The building houses part of the University of Oregon (apparently, the School of Architecture) and there were several thesis projects on display. The inside of the building was a work of art in itself, as they had combined three different buildings into one, incorporating elements from all of them with modern elements to create a very nice space. Included with the University of Oregon, were several business office suites and the Ducks Store (Oregon Ducks).

This is Portland's Fremont Bridge.  One of eight crossing the river into downtown.

I think they managed the mix of old and new well.

Old building elements were used as ornamentation on the walls. 

The thesis projects were fascinating.

This was the outside of two buildings at one time.  

Steel Bridge - I hope to see it rise for a boat.

The glass towers are part of the Oregon Convention Center.

Under the Morrison Bridge

Morrison Bridge

We were in the area to visit the Saturday Market which was a pretty large collection of artists and food vendors sprawling over several city blocks near the river.

We really liked this guy on the cello. As he strained to get some really high notes out of it, he broke a string. He gracefully ended the music he was playing, re-strung the cello, re-tuned and was playing again in less than 5 minutes. We dropped some money in the cello case and got copies of two CDs with his music.

Our guard buddy told us to avoid this part of town after dark.

This pair was very entertaining to watch and their music sounded pretty good, too! The guy sitting was playing the bass with his left hand while he used a drumstick in his right hand and his right foot to play the drums. Occasionally he also provided the back-up vocals - talk about multitasking - he was a busy man.

He didn't play one and then the other, it was simultaneous.  I took video, I was so fascinated by his talent.

The "FOR LEASE" sign is a shame.

On the way back to the car, we revisited the same building we started in (it had really nice restrooms). The guard talked with us some more and said we might be able to see more of the building if we returned another time. We will be trying to make that happen.

We headed back to the car after only about four hours - we didn't want to wear ourselves out on the first day. Went home and relaxed for a while before heading out to IKEA where Joani had her heart set on some Swedish meatballs for dinner. How could I refuse such a modest birthday wish? HAPPY BIRTHDAY, my dear!

Friday, August 30, 2013, Move to Hayden Island in Portland, OR

Thursday's wind and rain detached part of the living room slide cover, so I got out the ladder to see what could be done. It turned out to be relatively easy to press the cover spline back into the groove on the coach, but we will have to see if it just pulls out again with the next wind.

We headed to Jantzen Beach RV Park on Hayden Island in Portland, OR. More back roads through small towns made the trip exciting, but since just under half of the 119.7 miles (4,208.4 trip/63,689.5 total) was on I-5 the drive did not wear me out this time. You can see Sam stays pretty relaxed no matter what kind of road we drive. He curls up in his bed when we start and stays put until I set the parking brake at the next stop. Of course, rest stops get him excited until he sees he is just in a big parking lot. He will take a quick stroll around and then he's ready to get back on the road.

Joani loved the clouds as we were driving, so she snapped a few pictures through the windshield. She was able to shoot through the few clear spots with no bugs.

I just love cloud drama and the muted colors of the ships.

Looking at the mountains of logs being processed, it is difficult to believe there are any trees left growing. I guess we have to trust that the industry is managing things well enough that they don't put themselves out of business, but it still is a bit disconcerting to see. Of course, it would be a bother if I found they were all out of 2x4's at the Home Depot.

Thursday, August 29, 2013, Rainy Day at Long Beach, WA

Woke up to rain this morning (Long Beach, WA). In fact, it rained all day - it made us realize how lucky we have been while we were visiting the northwest to have had so little rain. By mid-afternoon, we had cabin fever and the rain seemed to let up, so we headed out.  

Not only horses and dogs were allowed on the beach, but cars too.

Of course, we didn't get too far down the beach before it started raining again. We got soaked by the time we got back home. We spent the rest of the afternoon planning the next leg of our journey and catching up on the blog.

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.