Astoria and Geocaching--July 31, 2008

Astoria was there for us to explore! We knew there was a promenade along the waterfront so we downloaded all the geocaches along the prom and off we went. The promenade is 4 miles long and one geocache was a picture puzzle along the way! We had to find the coordinates to match the pictures to solve the final clue. Our quest began at the Maritime Memorial.

The memorial is located beneath the Astoria Bridge.
From there we proceeded along the promenade viewing the sights and collecting clues for to solve the geocache. Astoria was built in 1822 over the water. Everything was built on pilings as they thought the land to steep a place to build. Also, it was easier to offload ships when the canneries were on the water. Many old canneries have disappeared, but the pilings remain.

The mural on the back of this Sear's was also a clue. Many of the buildings had murals depicting Astoria in the past.
Another geocache was located on the anchor outside the Maritime Museum.
We toured the museum and recommend it to anyone traveling this way. It has history of the Columbia River, Coast Guard, Navy, Astoria, etc. The pilot house of a navy ship was donated to the museum before it opened. The pilot house was floated to the museum by means of a barge and place by crane on the area where the museum would be. The museum was built around the 13 ton pilot house.

I had fun turning knobs in the pilot house of a tugboat that was on display. From the Maritime Museum we continued our geocaching and searched for a place to have lunch. As we completed the geocache puzzle and found the last cache we spotted a familiar name--Rogue. This Rogue is a public house--we've already eaten at their brewery (South Beach).The Rogue Public House is located in what used to be the BumbleBee cannery. The cannery has been rebuilt and now houses people, businesses, and the public house. We walked across the wooden bridge to get to Rogue.
We went in and had a pleasant lunch.
We planned our next stops while eating. A trolley runs the length of the promenade so we decided to ride the Trolley back to our car.
There was also a cache hidden on the Trolley!
Once back in the car we headed for the Astoria Column. The column is one of 12 across the US from Minnesota to Oregon. This column commemorates Astoria's early pioneers. The outside is done in sgraffito--an Italian form that combines paint and plaster carvings.
The column sits upon Coxcomb Hill--one of the highest spots in Astoria. There is a spiral staircase that you can walk to the top to view the surrounding area--unfortunately the column is closed until next spring or until the new staircase arrives and is installed! The view from the surrounding area is still great!

The Astoria bridge stretches from Astoria across the Columbia River...

... to Washington. When it was completed in 1966, it was called the bridge to nowhere since there is no town on the other side. Today, there is not much more!
The town of Astoria was the first permanent American settlement west of the Rockies. It has very steep hills and beautiful views.
It has also been the scene for many movies. Two of our favorites are Goonies and Kindergarten Cop. This is the school used in Kindergarten Cop.

We returned to the rv after a full day of sightseeing and prepared to pack up and move on to Washington.