Drive-by Astoria #13: Which Way?

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 15, 2012

Marine Drive

This traffic light is where you turn left to get onto the bridge up ahead. It's the beginning of a block-long loop into the sky, and there is no turning back. It's kind if like when you get strapped into the roller coaster, headed for a wild ride. I love driving over this bridge, but you roller coaster fans can keep your adrenalin rushes, thank you very much! This is as close as I come to catapulting myself into the sky unless it's in an airplane.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Ilwaco Cemetery

Near Ilwaco, Washington ~ December 2, 2011

One of our goals for the visit to the other side of the river was to help some people on Find-A-Grave.com locate their relatives. I got some nice photos in the beautiful late-afternoon light (Cold day, though! Very cold.) but due to bad planning on my part, we may have missed the one they wanted most. Lee tromped all over the cemetery looking for a particular name that I hadn't had the foresight to locate before we left. Actually, the marker may not be there, as others had failed to find it. So, that's a mystery to follow up on - an excuse to go back to Ilwaco on another beautiful day (with better planning). 

I did take some really nice pix of markers for the graves that we did find and soon I'll be uploading them to Find-A-Grave. This is a cool web site where you can locate your ancestors, relatives, genealogical search subjects, or conversely, supply photos and information for others looking for someone departed in your part of the country. You can enter requests for photos and info from far-away locations, or you can put yourself on an e-mail list to find graves of people in your area.

January 1, 2012: I've just discovered "Taphophile Tragics" thanks to Clytie, so am linking this post to it today. Thanks, Julie, this should be interesting!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Sand Bar

Astoria, Oregon ~ May 8, 2011

I took this photo from the Astoria Column with a 12x zoom. This is definitely not how it looks to the naked eye from that far away. You can see Ilwaco, Washington, on the far side of the river. The shipping channel is off the photo at the bottom, and the tall points of the bridge are out of sight to the left. As you can see here, the ships' pilots have to know what they're doing. Here you can see a photo of the sand bar taken from the bridge.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

A View from Cape Disappointment

Cape Disappointment, Washington ~ September 14, 2008

There is a lighthouse on Cape Disappointment, and I'll show it another day; I was standing near it when taking this picture. It's a different lighthouse, but not far from North Head lighthouse, which I posted a few days ago.

All of the water in the foreground is still the Columbia River. The actual mouth of the river is a ways to the right, outside the photo. You can see a white line on the right just below the mountains (especially if you enlarge the photo). Those are the breaking waves of the beach beyond South Jetty. North Jetty is farther to our right. The hump in the middle of the horizon is Saddle Mountain, the top of which I showed in this post. By the way, the name "Cape Disappointment" is obviously not derived from the view or the scenery, but because an English fur trader named Captain John Meares could not find shelter here from a storm at sea; the river was so wide, he didn't recognize it as a river, and thus found no shelter. He knew that a river was supposed to exist here, but apparently in the storm and low visibility, he concluded that it was not a waterway.

Astoria is at the far left of the photo. The Cape Disappointment link above includes an image identifying various places in this scene and some that you can't see here. It's worth a look.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

North Head Lighthouse, Washington

North Head Lighthouse, Washington ~ October 25, 2010

Guest Photographer: Glenn Taggart

Although our October photo contest is over, several people sent photos early in November. I will post them during the month. This photo by Glenn Taggart fits the theme I had planned for November (and maybe into December) of places near Astoria. There is so much to see in the immediate area, and I have not posted much about these places so far. I thought this photo was a perfect starter. North Head Lighthouse is easy to get to. It's just across the river near Ilwaco, and is atmospheric to the max.

Glenn said, "I took this pic a couple weeks ago at the North head lighthouse near Ilwaco, WA. I have a job building a trail there and was checking on the progress and snapped this pic out my window as I was driving by." Because he was on the job, Glenn was able to drive out to this point. For the rest of us, there's a short trail beyond the parking lot. Thanks, Glenn!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Ilwaco Art Walk

Thanks to an invitation from Stephanie, I spent several hours after work at the Ilwaco Art Walk yesterday evening. The Port of Ilwaco is in Washington, across the Columbia River from Astoria, Oregon, and a few miles downriver. It's a picturesque port for fishing boats and pleasure boats (but mostly private fishing boats by the look of it), and that's the direction in which I pointed my camera. On the other side of this walkway is a row of small art galleries and a few restaurants, some with lounges. The last art walk of the season sponsors a beach cean-up, and there was a drawing for prizes for those visiting all of the participating locations and getting your card stamped. It was quite festive, and the weather was perfect, provided you remembered to bring a light (?) jacket. Wine and snacks were offered by most of the galleries and shops, music was played at a few, and a good time seemed to be had by all. We ended up having appetizers at Pelicano's, and the local fried oysters on a bed of creamed corn were fantastic.