50 before 60- Portland to Astoria June 25, 2016

I awoke around 5 and noticed it was already light out. My husband went off to the fitness center at 6:30 and I gave up trying to sleep at 7. I used the extra time to respond to birthday greetings on Facebook. At 7:25, I noted that I was now 59!

After breakfast, our job was to pack up and checkout by 9:15. We did pretty good, checking out at 9:20. It was sunny and cool as we hit the road at 9:25, with 1232 on the odometer.

It took a bit of searching to 1. Find the Portland Saturday Market and 2. Find a nearby parking space. We wound up in a lot on 1st and Ash at 9:59 (1248) and paid $10 for the day, even though we planned only a couple of hours at most. We didn't have much choice.

 We headed off to the farthest point of the market, which was in McCall park, under the bridge. The unique thing about the market is that the person selling the item has to have made it. One of the first things we found that struck us was a doctored photo that had many symbols of Portland. It came in a size we could live with on our travel wall and we paid $30 for it. One symbol on it was a "bubbler", which is a thing there:

After looking at most of the booths in that area, I decided that the guy selling organic soaps 5 for $20 was offering the best deal. Lots of folks were selling jewelry and photography was very popular. There were even photos on coasters and pendants. Some artists had paintings and couple had flutes. There were ceramic makers with toothbrush holders, among other things. Food vendors had such a variety of ethnic foods: Thai, Lebanese, Chinese, Mexican, Polish, and even Hawaiian were there. After a while, Zyrtec could not handle it all and my eyes started up.

After going through the regular market and the nearby one that did not seem to require the seller to be the maker, we decided we should eat. My husband got a combo plate of perogies and chicken meatballs, while I had peppermint tea and a panini.

Before leaving, I found a guy making icosahedrons and other geometric shapes out of glass. I bought an icosahedrons box in red for myself for my birthday and a couple of smaller shapes. We had a nice chat about geometry and his upcoming trip to Manatee, Fl. He gave me $5 off on the box, which was nice.

We saw several people with pink Voodoo Donuts boxes and saw on Google, that it wasn't far from the car. We decided it was a good opportunity-until we saw the horrendous line that doubled back on itself and was behind a pink barricades. We did not have the time for that sort of thing.

We got going on the road at 12:20. The sky was so blue! Such a nice change from the last two days. US 26 inbound was very busy, but our side of the road wasn't bad. We were soon in the countryside, with tree-covered mountains in the distance. I dozed off.

Here's a sign we saw in one town, that we definitely do not have. Of course, they don't have hurricane evacuation routes:

At 2:20, after 94 miles, we were at the Lewis and Clark National Park at Fort Clatsop. It cost $5 each, which I don't mind paying, because the parks need it.

We browsed through the exhibits indoors and I picked up postcards and such and a new National Parks Passport, which I got stamped. We headed out to the reconstruction of the fort, passing a statue of Sacagawea along the way.

While my husband discussed trees with a ranger, I strolled off on the trail to the spring, although I found no spring. But, it was lovely under the enormous trees, with a nice  breeze and warm, when I stepped into the sun.

Finding my husband checking out the fort, I waited until he was ready and we walked through the woods to the canoe landing on the Lewis and Clark River. We took a different path back for the variety.

We had to leave at 3:38 to get to 4 pm Mass in Hammond. ( I try to go every year on my birthday and this would also cover Sunday.) We passed a bank that said it was 67 degrees, but it certainly felt warmer. We pulled into the parking lot of the mission, St. Francis de Sales at 3:54 (1350).

It's a small church and it was rather full. We managed to find seats in the last pew, which was actually one of two that didn't match the rest! The priest was a visiting Maryknoll missionary, originally from Maryland. After church, he told me that when he talks to Marylanders, what they miss most is crab cakes. The congregation were friendly with each other and the man in our pew was nice to us. At the sign of peace, they actually stretch across the aisle to hold hands.

We left after 5, heading for Astoria Column.

We had some issues with the GPS and had to switch to Google Maps. It did let us see a lot of Victorian homes in Astoria. We finally arrived at 5:35, paying $5 to park (1362). Since the shop would soon close, we stopped in there, before proceeding to take lots of pictures of the 270-300 degree view. We did not climb the column, but the view was good nonetheless. I posted several panoramics on Facebook. It was just too incredible to not share them. We could see the ocean in the distance and craggy Washington across the river.

At 6:14,we set off for our hotel.

 At 6:24, just 13 miles away, we reached the Hampton, which seemed rather new. We were assigned 225, which did not have a water view. My husband was unsuccessful

in his attempt to get it changed. 

We did some research for dinner and left at 7:05. We had to search for a parking place, which seams to be our thing, but wound up above the Fort George Brewery and Public House, our destination. We chose to eat on the second floor to have the view of the river. The menu on that level is different from the first floor, which was a new idea for us. We chose the Pizza du Jour ($15)  and he got Vortex IPA, while I had Divinity Fruity Wheat Ale. I really didn't detect the marionberries that were supposedly in it. It was good, though. The pizza was excellent and the pepperoni on it was huge!

I asked the waitress if the Cavatica Stout Chocolate Cake was good and she assured me it was. I said, that I'd take it then, since it was my birthday. Not only was it scrumptious, but she didn't charge us for it! That was a $7.50 savings.

We were back at the car at 8:35 and instead of going right back to the hotel, we drove east of town for a bit. There wasn't much to see, so we were at the hotel at 8:42.

It was a very good birthday!