Thursday we were in Kalama, downstream from Portland
It is Friday and we are further downstream. at the mouth of the Columbia in Astoria.
Tomorrow we head back UPstream, past Kalama to Portland
Then Sunday night I will be in Fort Worth.
Arther(itus) stopped by for a visit this morning so I have elected for a lazy day, caught up on my laundry and visited the maritime museum whose dock we are alongside. The museum is actually very well done and very nice. Astoria is the location of the nations’ only rough water rescue training school, so it is natural an entire room is dedicated to life sized replicas of 32, 30, and 45 foot rescue boats. But they did not attempt to replicate the 70 foot waves and currents that make this the ideal location for training their crews.
Don’t tell anyone from Astoria I said this, but there is a bit of a “Popeye’s Village” look to the town.
The channel is lined with empty container ships swinging around like compass needles as the tide changes
waiting for the channel pilot,
There are also the occasional oddball craft, which just reinforces the “Popeye’s Village” look and feel.
Our captain remarked we were lucky to be here for Astoria’s one day of summer — it is the day the fog clears for at least four hours and it doesn’t rain. That said I kind of like it here and wouldn’t mind hanging around for a while, but tonight and much of tomorrow we go back up river past Kalama to Portland.
It is cocktail time so I am closing now and may resume later .
I returned from dinner to find orange colored tags to put on my luggage Sunday morning and placed outside my door tomorrow night So they will get on the 8:00 AM bus to the airport Sunday. That means I will have to pack everything tomorrow night. I may be unshaven when I arrive home. That also means five hours to kill at the Portland Airport. 😟