Astoria’s a quick trip, guaranteed to please
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, June 10, 2006
There are travelers who plan every detail and leave nothing to chance, and those, like me, who favor the “spur-of-the-moment” approach.
The latter is rife with potential disasters that can result in vacation hell, but when things click, impromptu travel can be fun and full of surprises. You don’t want any of the unpleasant kind, however, so this carefree approach works best with a known destination.
One my favorites is Astoria on the Columbia River and near the Oregon coast, a destination with so much to offer that you can go there on a moment’s notice without fear of disappointment. So when I announced one sunny morning that I needed to “get out of town,” we were on our way in less than two hours.
Our three-day holiday began on a happy note when we discovered by chance a pleasant way to break up the long I-5 drive. A side trip down the Washington side of the Columbia River took us to a little topless ferry that crosses the river to the Oregon side. Take the Longview-Kelso exit and drive west on the scenic Ocean Beach Highway (Highway 4) as it hugs the Columbia River to Cathlamet, the seat of Wahkiakum County. The little town is connected by a bridge to Puget Island. Drive across the bucolic island to ride the last ferry operating on the lower Columbia River. It runs daily and the fare is $3 for passenger and car,
The open-top vessel, operated by Wahkiakum County, shuttles passengers and their vehicles daily between Puget Island and Westport on the Oregon side. The crossing, less than 20 minutes, adds time to the overall trip but rates high on the scenic meter. Our crossing included up-close views of sailboats tacking in the wind and ocean-going cargo ships, and we also got a whiff of chemical fragrance from the nearby pulp mill in Wauna.
Back on land, we headed west. Astoria, a lovely and historic old town, is a Pacific Northwest treasure. Its hillside setting, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean offers that exhilarating sense of destination that comes where the land meets the sea.
Astoria is steeped in history. The Lewis and Clark Expedition spent its miserable winter of 1805-06 at nearby Fort Clatsop. In 1811, John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company founded Fort Astoria as a fur-trading post, making it the oldest permanent settlement west of the Mississippi.
The weather is generally cool and it rains here an average 75 inches a year. Summer and fall are perfect times to visit.
Astoria has been called the “Little San Francisco of the Pacific Northwest” because of its steep hillsides, winding streets and fine old Victorian homes. But I don’t think it needs to be compared to anyplace. Astoria offers its own quirks and charms, a rugged little town that’s been buffeted by decades of history and by the storms rolling in off the Pacific.
Tethered to the river and the sea as a port city with a long history of fishing and fish canning and a rich Scandinavian heritage, Astoria wears its past while embracing the 21st century with signs of development and gentrification along the waterfront blending into the working roots of the downtown, much of which was built in the 1920s.
Its popularity as a tourist destination got a boost when cruise ships began stopping there a few summers ago, off-loading thousands of passengers who fill the streets in a wink.
The town has responded with more shops and restaurants and other diversions. You can walk and shop and stop to eat throughout the downtown core, where told buildings have found new life as boutiques, coffee shops, art galleries and antique stores. Astoria also boasts one of the last remaining old JC Penney stores for those who like their nostalgia with a pinch of practicality. The 1924 Liberty Theatre, built in the Italian Renaissance style, is a local landmark. Summer brings farmer’s markets selling local produce, cheese and honey and a raft of festivals. The tourist boom has spurred a surge in accommodations, from basic motels to more upscale waterfront developments.
Allow at least a day to see the town and its attraction. Begin with a driving tour up and down the steep hills to get a closer look at the Victorian-style homes that dot the hillside. One of the most important is the Flavel House, a Queen Anne style mansion built in 1885 by Capt. George Flavel and restored and furnished with period furnishings and artwork. It’s open for public tour.
Not-to-be missed
The Astoria Column is a 125-foot tall structure built in 1926 in a spacious park on the city’s highest hill. The concrete column is illustrated with scenes depicting the discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray in 1792 and other significant events in the discovery of the West.
The Column exterior has been completely restored to its original grandeur. Climb the 164 steps up the spiral staircase for the best views of the mountains, rivers, Young’s Bay, the ocean and the commanding Astoria-Megler Bridge, a 4-mile long structure that crosses the mouth of the Columbia River (dubbed the “graveyard of the Pacific for all the shipwrecks in these treacherous waters) from Astoria to the Washington side. A popular pastime is lofting toy glider planes off the top of the column.
The Columbia River Maritime Museum on the Columbia houses one of the finest collections of nautical artifacts in the country including an array of full-size vessels. If you haven’t been in a few years, you’ve missed the $6 million dollar remodel that expanded the museum to 44,200-square feet, adding space for new interactive exhibits.
The Astoria Riverfront Trolley is another recent addition, making exploring Astoria’s working waterfront a lot easier to see as a passenger on board the 1913-vintage trolley. The trolley, which runs daily in the summer along the waterfront, was fully restored by volunteers who also operate it. The ride is 3 miles. The average round-trip is about 45 minutes. The fare is a $1, $2 for all day. It was a welcome sight after a full-day of sight seeing when our tired bodies spotted it chugging down the track toward the Maritime Museum.
We hitched a ride and got a tour of the waterfront that took us past restaurants and shops and a fish packing plant where we saw tuna being processed. Our driver, a recently retired Marysville school teacher, gave us this tip: It’s all the same tuna, no mater what the label says on the can.
Mike Murray is a former A&E writer for The Herald, now retired.
