Traveling as Two: Astoria

We got up early and checked out of the hotel; there are so many things we wanted to see. But first we had to make a trip across the bridge into Washington.

I love huge bridges even though they terrify me a little. From Astoria, this one starts out really high so the barges can pass beneath it and then gets lower to the water as you go. The Columbia River is massive! We drove the Washington shoreline for a few minutes before turning back to the bridge.

After we got back to the Oregon side, our first stop was the Columbia Maritime Museum. I was anxious to learn a bit more about what is arguably the largest river in the continental US.

My sweetie loved this museum! We had no idea how important the men and women of the Coast Guard are in this community. Without them, many more ships would never be able to "cross the bar" and make it from the ocean into the Columbia River and back out to the open seas again.

We left the museum even more in awe of the Columbia River if that were possible. My sweetie wanted one last look up close, so we headed to Fort Stevens State Park. This is the only place the Japanese fired on the mainland during WWII. Sadly, most of the park and memorabilia were closed because of COVID-19, but we did find one terribly windy platform to stand on.

Then it was back in the car. We were still hoping to get to the Tillamook Creamery factory tour before it closed.

My sweetie is a huge fan of Tillamook Rocky Road ice cream. He is, in fact, an ice cream snob!

We couldn't come all the way to Oregon and miss out on this one.

They aren't giving out samples right now because of COVID-19, so we bought our own...

...and a bunch of other stuff as well.

Then it was back to the condo in Lincoln City. We old folks were tired and needed a chance to rest. But what an amazing day.

**Just so you know, we pull our masks down for a quick pic, but they are required here in Oregon as well.