There Goes the Couch

After shouting about this dumped couch on the blog and on Facebook, making phone calls, and finally putting it on craigslist (with no calls and no takers, but then it had a broken leg and didn't smell that good), Lee finally paid Don Sparks to come and haul it away. It was cheaper than paying the waste management company, but it also should not have been our problem. Francisca was right in her comment. Someone needs to re-think the incentives (or lack of) and the process of disposing of these cast-offs. (Maybe someday they will all be made of recyclable modules, but that's another story.) There was another interesting comment about thrift stores going out of business because they also have to find a way to dispose of the junk that is pawned off on them rather than only the things someone would want to buy. I've noticed that it's very hard to get thrift stores around here to take anything, because they are overloaded anyway.

By the way, this intersection is 15th Street and Marine Drive. The lower part of the building on the right is Area Properties. Lee owned the business before he retired, and it's now owned by mother-daughter team Barb and Meagan.

Don's truck is not going the wrong way (see the sign), but the block is only a few yards long here, as Commercial and Marine Drive converge going opposite directions. The "One Way sign is for Commercial Street. Here's a view of that short block from the east with Marine Drive on the right and Commercial on the left. The building in the middle is Area Properties.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Drive-by Astoria #12: A Woodsy Scene on Marine Drive

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 15, 2012

Marine Drive

Being built on a hill, Astoria provides numerous views like this one, and being in the Pacific Northwest (PNW), the views are usually green, even before the rains start after summer. I took this photo along Marine Drive not far fron where the bridge crosses to Washington. There may be Blackberries in there. . . .

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Theme Day: My Street

Astoria, Oregon ~ June 8, 2012

My "street," the Astoria Riverwalk, is so extraordinary that I've shown it many times on this blog. It runs along the river the whole length of town and beyond. Here you see a fraction of it in the foreground. It connects to Marine Drive (parallel, beyond the stop sign). Here it also intersects with 15th Street, which takes you up the hill to the college. The Riverwalk never looks much like a street, but like an alleyway, parking lot, paved walkway, boardwalk, or trolley trestle. I showed the view west from here in yesterday's post. Unaccountably, any building fronting the Riverwalk bears the address of some other street. For instance, the address just behind me is 1490 Marine Drive, and you can see how that would confuse someone  actually looking for it on Marine Drive.

See thumbnails for all Theme Day participants

Many thanks to Julie and Peter for giving City Daily Photo bloggers

 a new home on the web and reuniting old friends!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Drive-by Astoria #17: Perspectives

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 15, 2012

Marine Drive

At the beginning of the drive-by series, starting with photo #2, we were tripping along Bond Street. Now we're heading back toward town on Marine Drive paralleling Bond, which is somewhere in the midst of the vegetation climbing this hill. I'm not sure which row of windows is street level on the white building ( believe it's the second row from the roof), but . . . (see below) . . . 

. . . this nearby tall building is the back of the apartment complex I showed in this post. The lower row of windows seen here is at street level on the other side. You can just see the top of the windows on the 4th floor, and there is one more below that - the apartment where I lived when I first moved here. From this angle, it looks like it wouldn't have much of a view, but it certainly did.

When I stepped out the back door and climbed half a dozen steps . . .

. . . the world opened up. These last two photos were taken August 7, 2001.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Drive-by Astoria #14: Uniontown

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 15, 2012

Marine Drive, Uniontown

Still on our drive-by excursion, we pass some buildings in the short stretch of Marine Drive called Uniontown that were apparently built as houses, but most often are home to small businesses. I enjoyed the funky and eclectic "Captain Fishhead's Emporium," or whatever the official name was, but it's emptied out now. Stores in this area have ranged from the fun and funky to the downright sleazy. I got my favorite shoes mended in this vicinity, so that was quite useful. You can see in the upper left of the photo how the bridge ramp vaults into the air at a nice clip.

What are your favorite or least favorite places in Uniontown?

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Drive-by Astoria #5: Sleeping under the Bridge

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 15, 2012

Marine Drive

It looks like the bridge is sitting right on top of the Holiday Inn Express. Not exactly, but it's very close! Some of you may remember the series of photos I took from the hotel in 2010. One of the images was my favorite "Astoria Daily" photo of the year. Here is the rest of the series:

. View from the Lobby

. Gull's-eye View of the Cannery Pier Hotel

. Trolley from the Top

. A Point of Land with Benches

. Ship and Bridge: A Classic Astoria Scene

We've come down from the Bond Street hill to the intersection of Bond Street and Marine Drive. Does anyone remember the sign on the marquee from when the hotel was first built? It said, "Where Sleeping  under the Bridge is. . . . " and I can't remember the rest of it! The sign disappeared after awhile. Maybe somebody thought it was politically incorrect?

(Aha! Michael E. McDaniel found it on TripAsvisor. The sign read, "Where sleeping under the bridge is a good thing." Thanks, Michael!)

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

That intersection, with truck

Believe it or not, every vehicle passing through Astoria to points east (such as Portland or Seattle) has to negotiate this downtown corner. Traffic comes in on a small highway without too many nasty curves, and it leaves on the same. But, it has to go through town on Commercial Street (essentially our "Main Street"). Marine Drive is wider and straighter for anyone going west, but since Astoria's downtown is a one-way grid, Marine Drive goes only one way, and this is the result. There is no interstate or freeway for those who would rather "not get off here." I heard that the routing was arranged this way in order to keep business bustling in town, and maybe that's true. But there's no bypass for the big guys, and since we're located in a logging area, trucks carrying trees and heavy equipment share the same road as smaller vehicles.

If you're travelling behind a rig like this, you need to hold back when you near the intersection, or you could be forced to back up, and if there's a line of cars, it's not so easy. I've seen it. In fact, when I was new in town, it happened to me. The truck in the photo is of moderate size, but longer ones do comes through here. When one of them gets stuck, there's nothing for it but to put it in reverse and try again. I'm sure Astoria has a special niche somewhere in the Truckers' Hall of Fame and Legend.

Suomi Hall

This is the back of the Finnish Brotherhood's Suomi Hall, showing both the Finnish flag and the U.S. flag in paint. The brotherhood and/or building were established in 1886. That's an important date for me, as well, since it's the date my ancestors helped found the town where I grew up. I took this photo last April 5, but the trees look similar at this time of year, too. The back of the hall faces the Maritime Memorial seen in this post just across the grass. The curve of the Astoria-Megler bridge can be seen in the background of the Suomi Hall on the other side of Marine Drive. Also across Marine Drive is the Finnish Sauna, which has appeared in two posts and the Old Finnish Meat Market, which I haven't shown yet. This small part of Astoria is known as Uniontown.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Cruising carnival ride

A carnival ride cruises down Marine Drive on Sunday, July 26. Sunday Market was in full swing, the weather was glorious, and everyone was headed to the beach. The carnival ride seems to be passing through town, maybe to one of the beach cities up or down the coast. Marine Drive is also Highway 30, and carries much of the beach-bound traffic from Portland and Seattle if they happen to be coming via the south bank of the Columbia River, which is a lot faster than the road on the north side, although you wouldn't guess it from the way the traffic looks here. This "crawl" of vehicles is unusual on a weekday or in winter, but is not untypical for a weekend day in summer . . . especially when the sun is out!

I'd been wondering what you call the style of the building behind the traffic, and I still don't know. It has a few pieces of ornamentation that remind me of the late 1800s and early 1900s, yet the clean lines look a bit like Art Deco without the flair. Here's an evening photo of the building I really like. It was taken from 12th Street, the cross-street at the left of this photo. Bronze Koi Beads is a cool business occupying the ground floor. It deserves its own photo one of these days. A medical supply store takes up the corner at the left. It's useful, but not as picturesque. Obviously, the top floor is up for grabs!

I chose this photo today for Mellow Yellow Monday, where you can find lots of photos featuring this happy color!

Street Damage Made Beautiful

There is no image reflected here for Weekend Reflections, only the light of the sun reflecting off of the patches at the intersection of 16th Street and Duane. I thought the patterns were not only interesting, but rather pretty. If you wonder why there are so many cracks in the street at this intersection, scroll down.

As with a number of Astoria's streets, at this point 16th Street doesn't have the support of solid ground. The intersection in the first photo is just to the left out of the picture. It's hard to see the concrete wall a few feet behind the pillars, but it's there - and it's impossible to see beyond the concrete wall to know what the structure would look like under the intersection.

For those not familiar with Astoria, Oregon, Marine Drive is at the right of the photo, with the River Walk and the Columbia River just a few paces away. The mountains are in Washington, four miles across the river. The purple building in the middel is Custard King, and on the left is Shallon Winery, which I have not shown yet. To reach downtown Astoria, travel left on Marine Drive or enter the one-way grid in the top photo.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Happy First Birthday, AODP!

I knew that if I kept at it, it had to happen. Today is Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo's first birthday! Yes! I started my posts with this photo of the Astoria welcome sign at the east end of town near Safeway, and today I'm posting the "Welcome to Downtown Astoria" painted sign where you approach the old downtown area at 15th Street. Beneath the sign it says, "National Register Historic District." Marine Drive is on the right, and Commercial Street is on the left. Here you enter Astoria's one-way grid, so all traffic on the right is going west, and all traffic on the left is going east.

Beyond the grass is 15th Street, and the cream-colored building in the center is Area Properties, a business that Lee built with his nephew, Larry. Larry has moved on to other things and Lee has retired. Barbann and her daughter Meagan own it now. You can't see it very well in this pic, but on the right of the photo among the small roofs is my business, Tapir and Friends Animal Store. Lee and I didn't meet this way, but it's a small town and we happened to end up with our businesses facing each other.

Here's the back side of the sign. Just beyond the point of the traffic island, the lanes converge and the one-way grid ends. You're looking at the river on the left, but it's hard to recognize it.

There's still so much to see, I feel as if I've barely touched the surface of this incredible area. Not only are there many, many parts of the town still to photograph, but the nearby outlying areas are a wealth of interest and beauty as well. In yesterday's comments, Costas asked how many such beautiful places I was still hiding. The answer is, "Lots."

In the last few days, Astoria, Oregon, Daily Photo has gained its 700th fan on Facebook, and today the blog appears in Elleda Rhiannon Wilson's "In One Ear" column in the The Daily Astorian. It's been fun receiving your comments and letters. I want to thank every one of you for your interest and kind thoughts.

Wandering around town with a camera gives me an excuse to walk that extra distance to check something out, or to put on my shoes when I might stay hunkered down in front of the computer. It gives me a reason to put words to those things I look at in the course of a day, week, year. It fills a creative niche and makes me happy. And last, but clearly not least, I've made a number of very interesting and wonderful friends through this blog who all have something in common: even with different visions, we share a way of looking thoughtfully through a lens and sharing our perceptions of the world. What more can I ask? I'm up for another year of exploring. Want to enjoy it with me? I hope so.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Antiques

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 12, 2012

I've always liked this antique building that sells antiques on Marine Drive. I'm not sure if it's open for business. I think it's been closed for a very long time, but if anyone knows, I'm interested. I could try to notice next time I go by. If I remember, it used to look closed even when it was open.

I like the details, like the odd-shaped windows and those things with the flowers. Deco decor, I would imagine. The front door, such as it is, is around to the right on Marine drive. What you see here is a paved alley.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Franciscovich Building: Under A Blue Sky

Astoria, Oregon ~ February 15, 2012

Guest Photographer: Jessika Robinson

One of the many cool things about Astoria is the named buildings in our downtown area. Located on Marine Drive at 16th Street, this one is just outside the nucleus of the congregation of commercial buildings that line Commercial Street, Duane, and part of Marine Drive. It housed Hauer's Cyclery & Locksmith for many years, and now it's the home of the Bach 'n Rock music store. I have to admit I didn't recognize the upper facade of the Franciscovich Building when my guest photographer showed it to me. The building was constructed, as most of downtown Astoria was, after the Great Fire of 1922. The Franciscovich dates from 1925.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Ghost cars at 14th Street

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.

Born to Spin

August 13, 2010

We finally got some temperatures in the high 80s, and I heard as many complaints about it as I heard people saying they were thrilled. For me this wind wheel on Marine Drive was a welcome distraction from the too-warm day.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

When The Goonies Went to the Store . . .

When The Goonies went to the store, this is where they went. It's just around the corner from their house, which I'll show another time. Signs had been changed to make this building into a grocery store, and I don't know what they did about the unsightly wires and poles, which are a plague for anyone trying to capture this otherwise-photogenic town.

The sign says 37th Street and Lief Erikson Drive. Leif Erikson Drive is an Extension of Marine Drive and is also Highway 30. It's the main drag through Astoria going along the Columbia River. It's also called East Columbia River Highway on some maps, although I've never heard anyone use that name.

I tripped over a plant and landed hard on the sidewalk while backing up to get this angle, so I hope any Goonies fans will appreciate the photo. I'm not feeling very charitable towards this location right now, although I like the blue sky.

Addendum: With bruises and sore muscles healing, I can enjoy this photo again. I also want to thank Gayle and Peggy for helping with info. Peggy verified that this is the location used for the store in the movie (I wasn't 100% sure), and Gayle added in a comment: "Sheryl - 'in the day' this was, in fact, a small neighborhood grocery store. Lovvold's Grocery." Thanks to you both!

This street sign shows one local spelling of Leif Erikson's name. I wonder what happened?

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Drive-by Astoria #1: The Corner at 8th and Commercial

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 16, 2012

Yesterday was sunny and beautiful, and for a change I was a passenger with her camera out. Some of the shots I got were kind of fun. The perspective was different, the angles unpredictable, and the composition could either be nice or insane. When I looked at the photos, I realized this is how many of us see our town. As of today, I think I'll do a short series of "Drive-by Astoria" photos. It might also be fun for those who haven't been here for awhile to feel like they're really back for a visit.

Here we are coming up 8th Street from Marine Drive, turning left onto Commercial. Looking west you can see the post office steps on the right and the Clatsop County Courthouse on the left.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Christmas Lights, 1885

Astoria, Oregon ~ March 22, 2010

This plaque surprised me, sitting "in the middle of nowhere" along Marine Drive by the parking lot that used to be a car wash. (It's on a vacant block on the south side of the street just east of the TLC Credit Union and the Mini Mart. It's very easy to drive by and not even see it.) As it turned out, it was interesting reading. Thanks to Clatsop County Historical Society for reminding us of these things!

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Drive-by Astoria #16: The Butterfly Fleet

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 15, 2012

W. Marine Drive at Columbia Street and Bond

I was surprised a number of weeks ago to see a new mural in Astoria. Apparently it was unveiled about July 10th. I was no less surprised to learn about the butterfly fleet itself and these amazing sails that look like wings. At one time there were 2,500 of these boats in our coastal waters, but the Maritime Museum was not able to find a single one remaining. The mural was painted by local artist Dorothy Danielson on the side of the Wauna Credit Union building. There is a book called The Butterfly Fleet on Amazon.com. The cover is very similar, but I don't know the connection. The scroll on the mural reads:

THE BUTTERFLY FLEET

BEFORE ENGINES - THEY FISHED

IN BOATS POWERED BY THE WIND

IN THEIR SAILS & WERE CALLED

THE BUTTERFLY FLEET

THEY WERE AT THE MERCY

OF THE WIND & TIDES 

& AS SUCH IT WAS A VERY

DANGEROUS PROFESSION - THEY

DID NOT ALWAYS COME BACK -

THESE PREDOMINATELY SCANDINAVIAN

FISHERMEN & WOMEN PREFERRED 

USING GILLNETS - WHICH THE FISH

SWAM INTO & GOT HUNG UP. THERE

WERE DAY FISHERIES & NIGHT FISHERIES -

THE NIGHT ONES WERE LIKED AS THE

FISH HAD A DIFFICULT TIME SEEING

THE NET, SINCE THEY HAVE BEEN KNOWN

TO SWIM ALONG SIDE OR GO AROUND -

ON A GOOD TRIP THEY CAME HOME

LOADED TO THE GUNNELS --

Speaking of adventures, Lee Spangler is off on a new one. For anyone who would like to follow along, his blog is here.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

Drive-by Astoria #4: "Oasis on Bond Street"

Astoria, Oregon ~ September 15, 2012

Bond Street Hill / Columbia View Apartments

Here we are at the top of the Bond Street hill. When I first came to Astoria from Colorado in the summer of 2001, there were about 6 or 7 apartments available in the entire city. Only the one in this building seemed remotely livable, and when I walked in I thought I'd found Heaven. It was affordable, it was clean, it was spacious, the building was secure, it had an incredible view of the river AND a back deck! 

The building actually has five floors. It has three on the street side, but since it's on a steep slope, there are two more floors down once you get inside. My apartment was the only one on the bottom floor, which was strange, because it didn't feel like a basement. One side of the apartment was dug into the hillside, which kept it from getting hot in summer, and the other side perched high above Marine drive and the shipping channel. It's one of the coolest places I've ever lived. The title of this post is what Erby called the place. She was the very efficient and friendly caretaker when I lived here.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.