Shipwreck & Attack on West Coast

Astoria, Oregon: Fort Clatsop and Lewis & Clark National Historic Park. This is the place where Lewis & Clark and Corps of Discovery stayed the winter of 1805-1806. As we got close to the park, I saw on my Garmin RV 1090 map that there is an airport right across the road. I said to Kevin, “OH look, an airport. So close. They (Lewis & Clark) must have flown home.” 🤪 We both laughed very hard.

The next day we drove to Seaside Promenade. I read about it and where to park. It was interesting to see that from most of the 1.5 miles sidewalk you can’t see the ocean at all. I would be so mad if I had a ground level hotel room and all I could see was the sand dune hills. HA The sun poked out for a short time but thankfully there wasn’t wind. Then when we passed the dunes we felt the wind so I guess they are a protectant. The air is thick with what looks like fog or humidity and nothing looks clear today. It gives a really neat sight for photography.

We did see the Tillamook “Terrible Tilly” Lighthouse. It is out a ways in the ocean on a rock and had a terrible time. We could see it from the Promenade.

Another day we drove to Fort Stevens State Park. The fort closed at 4:00pm but we drove around the state park. Can’t see the ocean for the trees but finally found a road to see the ocean. We also found Peter Iredale Shipwreck. https://oregondiscovery.com/peter-iredale-shipwreck Crashed in 1906. It is really neat to see. Glad no one was injured in the wreck. It was fun to walk a ways along the beach looking for seashells. No complete sand dollars. Then we drove on north to the end of the land. One place we could see the bay and across to Astoria. At the end we could see Washington.

Continuing on we came to Battery Russell. It was used 1904-1944. It has the distinction of being the only stateside installation attacked by enemy forces since War of 1812. June 21, 1942. The Battery didn’t return fire because the Japanese submarine was out of range for the guns. The submarine left without inflicting any damage. https://www.beachconnection.net/news/battruss061912_510.php

It was fun to see Kevin pulling on the large hooks where chains would have been attached to hold the guns. We sat at a picnic table in the sun for a few minutes and talked more about the place. At a gas station, while he filled up the truck, I looked for a restaurant, since he offered to take us out. It was 6:45pm and most places were closing at 7:00pm. We decided to go to Mo’s in Seaside; we had seen it yesterday on our walk. Along Broadway we passed Tom’s Fish and Burgers and decided to eat there instead. The place was empty of customers and very clean. We both had cod fish and chips fries. It was tasty! We wondered what the old building use to be; this one and the two across the street have their front doors at an angle to the intersection. The worker didn’t know.  Back at the campground, the neighbor across from us had been smoking yumminess. Last night he smoked ribs and tonight was pulled pork. Even though I was full, my mouth watered. Kevin had talked with the guy yesterday when he was doing something with HOWE (footnote 1). The guy said was smoking all sorts of meats all week long. Ah the smells at a campground. 🙂

People tie up fishing lines to the bridge in a small river in Seaside, OR.

1. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country.