It's a classic summer spot with restaurants, ice cream shops, kite stores and gift emporiums. We had a humongous breakfast at Laurie's Homestead Breakfast House—too much to eat, with giant omelettes for the adults and pancakes, eggs and bacon for the boy.
Along with breakfast, Matty got treated to the biggest, fanciest hot cocoa we've ever seen—a kid's delight of towering whipped cream taller than the mug, covered in rainbow sprinkles and served with a strawberry on the side. We left very full, and very happy.
To ride off some of that decadence, we road our bikes along the Discovery Trail at the beach. It's a bike path that winds up the miles of dunes and bluffs in an easy roller coaster, turning and swooping through the tall grass. It's the same stretch of beach that Clark (of Lewis & Clark) explored with members of the Discovery Corps. At one point we stopped to go out to the beach itself, wide sand as far as the eye can see in both directions.
After the beach we returned to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center to turn in the workbook for Matty's Jr. Ranger Badge. With the badge safely affixed to his new hat, we hiked the short trail to the lighthouse at the point. On the way, the trail split down to a spot called "Dead Man's Cove," a perfect little inlet with deep, clear water, waves and driftwood. If the tide had been out, it would have been perfect for tidepooling; as it was, we contented ourselves with rock-hopping and beach combing.
The lighthouse itself is still operational, although the trail is strewn with ruins of old outposts, armaments and bunkers from the last century. At the top, in the lookout booth, we could see the Coast Guard sentry monitoring traffic in and out of the river mouth. From there we could see all the way south to Astoria, Oregon and the coast, all the way to the three rocks featured in the movie "the Goonies." We'll have to venture out there another time.
By early afternoon we'd travelled across the bridge over the Columbia River–long and busy with traffic–into the town of Astoria itself. We stopped at an old building on the site of the original Fort–Ft. George–which is now a bakery and brew pub. We bought some bread for our supper, and had lunch at the brewery. House-made sausages, a great kid's lunch and delicious brews for us. It was a decadent day, eating out twice!
Then we made our way east, through Oregon to another river crossing at Longview. That crossing leads into Washington past an enormous lumber mill, the largest we've ever seen. The pile of sawdust alone was as big as a full city block.
We pulled into the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center, just outside Castle Rock, to find a grey and cloudy day when it was forecast to be warm and sunny. We toured the center (Matty earned another badge, this one for "Junior Geologist,") then we checked into our campsite right across the road, at Seaquest State Park. It was nice enough, but the clouds and cold made it a bit unwelcoming to stay at the site for long.
So, tipped off by a volunteer at the Visitor Center, we traveled the 50 mile road up to the top of the mountain to see what we could see. The live cam at the Center had shown scattered clouds at the top, and with dusk so late, we decided to take the chance.
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| "View" from the top of Mt. St. Helens. |
We saw exactly what it looks like on the inside of a cloud, but nothing more. It was milk-white, with about 10 feet of visibility all around. We gave it a go, and walked the little trail by the observatory for a while, looking at wildflowers and hoping the clouds would lift a bit so we could see the peak, but no luck. We headed back down, all 50 miles, back to our dark little camping spot in the woods. Fortunately, the road itself is quite beautiful. It was constructed after the blast in 1980, and winds through the valley where the mudslide took out the old road, homes and people who were stranded after the eruption. The entire top of the mountain slide down that way, the path of least resistance, clogging up streams and rivers for miles around. It's still one of the siltiest rivers in the country, and tons of ash and debris are filtered out of it each year.
Back at the site, we found the firewood too damp, the air too cold, the night a bit of a loss. So we tucked into bed and hoped the next day would have a happier ending.
read about Wed, Aug 10th>
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