Astoria, Oregon ~ December 19, 2008
Astoria, Oregon ~ November 11, 2009
Warrenton, Oregon ~ November 11, 2009
February 26, 2008
December 18, 2008
By Daryl Moore ~ December 20, 2008 
Merry Christmas!
With bright blue skies, cold air, and wind chill (but no snow or rain), I took a look at how some of the downtown businesses had decorated for Christmas.
Here's the tree inside Wells Fargo Bank.
The Astoria High School Band Boosters were raising funds playing music in the shelter of the Liberty Theatre's entranceway.
Gold baubles decorate a wreath in the office of the Liberty Theatre.
The street light outside of Lucy's Books on 12th Street.
T. Paul's Urban Cafe. By the way, the living trees with lights are a year-around feature I always enjoy.
Celebrate a Finnish Christmas at Finn Ware. (You knew we had to have a Finnish store with so many Finns as founding fathers and mothers.)
I especially like Santa's old-world look and gentle expression at Bellisima Salon.
Outside of Adagio, a horse masquerades as a reindeer.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
Today, December 23, 2009, it's chilly with a lot of sun between the clouds. Recently we've had several days on end of below-freezing weather, and we've had lots of rain, but we haven't had them at the same time, so we haven't had snow. Maybe we'll have some this year and maybe not. Last year we had more snow than I've ever seen in Astoria. Some years since my arrival in 2001, we've had none at all. Last December 23rd was our 7th day in a row with snow on the ground. I thought I would make a post of my photos from one year ago today. I took photos on each of our snow days, and I'll probably post some of them over this holiday season. It's always fun to see the snow here because it's so rare and of course, it makes everything look so different.
Here's the fountain. On the left were roses with ice on them. I took a picture of a bright yellow rose covered with ice and snow, but it was badly out of focus.
The camera really doesn't show you how steep this hill is on 12th Street. It's one of the steepest grades in town, although the steep grade here is only a block long. At the top is the foot path through the trees and vines that is an extension of 12th Street. The lovely green Italianate Victorian house at the end of that post is hidden behind the buildings on the right.
Some Christmas decorations downtown on Commercial Avenue. In the next few days, I'll show more downtown snow pictures.
No fake snow this year. The building is Hughes-Ransom Mortuary. When I was looking up their name in the phone book, the next ad I saw read, "Bad Smells? Too Much Dust?" Quickly I made sure I wasn't under the same heading. Uh, nope. It was Furnaces. Moving right along. . . .
Here I'm walking along Exchange Avenue toward 11th. The bit of yellow you see at the top with spires is the First Presbyterian Church, shown in an earlier post.
As I said, the plants were not expecting this snow with its melting and freezing days following . . .
. . . although the holly was probably happy about the weather.
It was fun to see how people approached this unusual condition in Astoria. The crows were always interesting, too. They seemed to be everywhere, because of course now we could see them - animated black against the white.
Now back to the Columbia River. I'm standing near the River Walk at the front of the Maritime Museum looking toward the Astoria-Megler Bridge, the radio tower, and the general downtown area.
Here's the River Walk just past the Maritime Museum. You can see the river between the trees and the tracks of the Riverfront Trolley.
Near where the last photo was taken. It was eerie to see the ships with snow for a foreground and background. One can almost imagine they're sailing through the Arctic. The building on the right is the old train station.
Here's the view looking up Coxcomb Hill vaguely in the direction of the Astoria Column.
It would seem that mammoths and dinosaurs like to celebrate the holidays, too. This is one of the windows of Video Horizons, whose reflective parking lot we saw on December 17th.
Here's the view of the Young's Bay Bridge (the new Young's Bay Bridge) from Smith Point. It crosses the mouth of Young's Bay (fed by Young's River and the Lewis and Clark River) right where the bay feeds into the Columbia River. This is a drawbridge, allowing the taller fishing boats to leave and enter the bay. It's the bridge most of us use to cross to Warrenton, Gearhart, Seaside, all Oregon points on the wedge of land that includes Fort Stevens and leads to South Jetty, and on down the coast. It's the way we get to the ocean. In my eight years here, I've only been caught in the traffic behind the raised bridge once or twice. It's fun to see the boats go through, especially if you're not in a hurry.
I'm always intrigued by images painted on streets. We have a "breadcrumb trail" up and down both sides of the Astoria hill indicating the way to get to the Column at the top. This image on 7th Street is pointing to the right, because at the intersection with Niagara Avenue just ahead, you turn right to go on up the hill toward your destination.
So this is what's been thumping against the pilings under our building. Now it's drifted across the water to rock next to the River Pilots' building in the comparatively calm water today, but unless the tide takes it, it will be back, and the water may not stay so calm. During much of the last two weeks, it's been pretty rough.
I'm sure that title is too strong. It could be a mellow blending on the inside. Outside, however, you can see that we have to be careful when we're driving or walking. I really hate one-way grids, and that's what we have throughout the downtown area of Astoria, Oregon. In other places, it always seemed much simpler and safer to me when everyone knew we had to look both ways at all intersections. The rules didn't change from place to place. After a little checking, it seems that the statistics on safety are . . . well . . . conflicted.
When I stopped to drop off a DVD, it was hard to miss the bright reflections. Does it look like it's been raining? By the way, Video Horizons is one of the few buildings on Astor Street. The street is only two very short blocks long, due to the curve of the town along the edge of the river. Highway 30, aka Marine Drive, takes up much of what might be Astor Street if the highway didn't exist.
These tote bags are made of genuine recycled boat sails. As you can see beyond the shop's entrance here on Pier 39, the work is done right on the spot at Four Winds Canvas Works, a marine resale store and canvas shop. They also take marine items for sale on consignment. Recycle, reuse. And authentic.
I don't know how many tugboats work in the Columbia River between here and Portland, but Betsy-L is one of them, and I don't think I've shown her before - at least not identified. Although the photo doesn't do justice to the lighting on the morning of December 4, what caught my attention was the bright glow and reflection on a dark river on a dark morning. The small sun break had caught the boat in its beam; a few seconds later, and the light had gone. The water was quite flat, and the hills in the background are on the Washington side of the river.
I like seeing the various types of leaves imprinted into the sidewalk in front of the Blue Scorcher Bakery Cafe. The other day, the the cement imprints had been joined by some of their real cousins, and the rain made all quite peaceful and still.
You can see their lights streaking by, but there's not much left of the cars. They seem to have warped into thin air here at 14th Street and Marine Drive. Click to enlarge the photo, and you'll see what I mean. We've seen a number of these buildings before in daylight. The bright windows on the left are from this building; I've shown various views of the tall Astor Hotel in four posts (is that all?); and on the right in the middle of the block is Gimre's Shoes. I've taken the photo from the landward end of Waterfront Park. The rails are where the Waterfront Trolley runs.
Last night we were supposed to get freezing rain and wake up with the ground under a sheet of ice, but it didn't materialize here in Astoria, Oregon. They kept the weather for themselves a bit further south. I don't know if the freezing rains will make it up our way today or not, but I've decided to post this photo from December 12 last year, when the weather was looming. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll get a better idea of the shiny surface of the water and the wildness of the waves. Remember, this is a river, not the ocean! The waves have been wild at times this week, but the sky has been clear.
I had to buy some plastic bags from an industrial supply store out by the port docks on the west end of town yesterday, so I took few minutes to wander around. It looks pleasant, because the sun was out, but I doubt the temperature was above 32 degrees. (Our cold streak is not over yet.) The tug in front is the Manfred Nystrom. Behind it is the Lady Washington. The bit of blue on the right side of the photo is the Oregon Responder, called an "oil skimmer," which is part of a network of ships used to clean up oil spills and is home-ported here at the docks in Astoria.
A hot tub would feel good right now. The temperature today never got above freezing; it reached 32 degrees and stopped, although the sun teased us all day. This cold is unusual for Astoria. Alas, the steam baths, established in 1928 in Uniontown, are not an option for warmth, as they closed some time ago and I've seen no sign of recovery. The sign looks fairly new and the reflection is nice. The facade above the window is torn away, but someone has painted the old brick wall a garish and unnatural red (not visible in this photo, but follow the link). They've been closed since I moved to Astoria, but I'll be patient. I'm waiting for them to open! Especially today. I posted about the baths once already, in September.
It's always a thrill to see the Lady Washington glide by, as she did again on Friday. You can read plenty about this venerable and beautiful ship via the link to her name.
As Jacob once said, the wooden piers and walkways are probably a good place not to be smoking. The City thinks so, too. New signs have cropped up recently asking people not to do just that. So I was sauntering along with my camera, and thought this would be a good day to take a photo.
In what country does this facade appear to be? Certainly not the Pacific Northwest of the United States. What do you think? But yes, it's one of Astoria's landmarks.
It appears that the rest of the old wooden pilings at the end of 12th Street where the pilot boat docks are being replaced by metal ones. Work is done using a couple of small skiffs and a crane barge. Yesterday I saw these boats along with the towboat going up and down the river. Today I saw where they were working. I also learned something. If you look back at the barge in yesterday's post (3rd photo down), you can see two tall poles with red at the top. I didn't realize until I saw the barge at work today that the poles are dropped into the mud to stabilize the barge while the huge crane does its work. I hadn't seen this arrangement before; the smaller crane barge I watched this summer didn't seem to have them. It seems like a nifty way not to tip over.
After a week or so of almost continual rain, we had blue skies yesterday. The weather also turned cold and the wind whipped up whitecaps on the Columbia River. Several times, this interesting combination of boats came past my office. Tomorrow I'll tell you where it's working along the waterfront, but here you can see the crane barge carrying metal pilings, attended by two silvery skiffs. On this pass, it was going downriver, to the left.
I zoomed in on the skiffs because I wanted to see what they were doing. I'm still not sure, but I imagine they could have been helping to push or maneuver the barge. They seemed to be butted up behind it.
A couple of hours later, the barge passed again, going upriver This time I got the towboat in the picture (left) and the two skiffs are alongside. You can see the two tall poles (the function of which you'll see tomorrow), and other poles lying on the deck sticking out over the rear of the barge.
Here's the towboat, pushing, and one of the skiffs.
Here the skiff is going ahead of the barge. I missed the larger wave that leapt up as the skiff cut through the water, but you can see the river was not completely calm. The railing in the foreground of these photos is from the catwalk leading from our building's deck to the radio tower.
