Seaview, Washington-Long Beach RV Resort

July 3-17, 2016

This is our 6^th and 7^th weeks in Washington. Sadly, I am growing extremely weary of Washington. I know! I know! You are saying, “WHAT?! But it's so beautful!” And I would say “Yes, it is beautiful....sometimes”. But it is also rainy, cold and overall too dismal for me. Especially in July.

My sister-in-law asked me, "But isn't the beauty enough?” [to overlook the rest]. My answer is a resounding NO! I will not say that I will NEVER return, but I am in no rush. I have to wait until the memory fades a little. Kind of like childbirth amnesia! Haha!

There is one thing I will definitely miss. And this is a little weird for me but I will miss the history! Since we set out this year, we have been learning about the Lewis & Clark Expedition. And here is where it all came to a close. We have read books, watched numerous videos and visited the same places where the thirty-something men, a woman and a baby of the discovery group walked, slept, ate and floated. And it has been so cool learning about it and trying to imagine their experiences. So that is where I will start...

Dismal Nitch-this is not the exact area but nearby where the group had wait out rain for 6 days while being battered against the rocky shores. As the name implies, their spirits were being battered as well. They were only a few miles from the mouth of the river.

Station Camp (aka Middle Village to the Chinook)- is where L&C would get their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean! Additionally, here is where the group would vote (even allowing their slave, York and a woman, Sacagawea a vote) and decide to stay or cross the Columbia River into Oregon to camp for the winter.

Cape Disappointment State Park (not a name from the L&C expedition, but from a previous explorer who tried to find the mouth of the river and gave up at this point)-There is a Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center here. This is also an area along with the Discovery Trail where the expedition group traveled to on foot and had their first contact with the ocean.

The Discovery Trail is a hike/bike interpretive trail that travels along the coast with some side roads leading into town.

Here I am hanging out with William Clark.  We became good friends!  Really though I think the statue is a little off.  Clark was only 34 during the expedition and this guy looks significantly older!

And this whale skeleton is to mark the location where they would find a whale washed ashore (while not the actual spot).  The jaw makes a great pretend canoe!

The group had voted to spend the winter in Oregon for better hunting opportunities and so they built Fort Clatsop. This is only a "near" replica because while they kept amazing records about where they went and what they saw, there was very little about the fort. The location however, is thought to be exact or within 50 yards.

(Jacob participated in the Flag Ceremony)

At Fort Clatsop, there was also an Interpretive Center for more exploration!  YAY!

Our last L&C stop was the Salt Works. Here in this area near the coast of Oregon. Some of the team spent nearly TWO MONTHS here boiling salt water to get the salt they would need for preserving meat for the return trip. (This is a replica site)

So that was our own little L&C expedition! They were seriously tough people!

We also did a Goonies tour in Oregon! Goonies is just one of those movies that brings back fond memories from childhood. I loved the movie and have delighted in sharing it with my kids. We were staying just across the river from Astoria, Oregon where some of the filming was done. We found the jail where the Fratelli brother escapes in the beginning of the movie and the jeep with the bullet holes in back,

Haystack Rock, where the Fratellis drive out onto the beach and join a race while trying to escape the police

Mikey's house, aka the Goondocks (they no longer allow you to drive or walk up the road to get pictures so I had to take it from afar)

and Indian Beach which is in a scene where the boys climb up a hill as they are heading to the old restaurant where the Fratelli's are hiding out.  I made the kids try to reenact the scene!  Ha Ha!

It was fun and I think the kids enjoyed it too.

And since we were nearby, we went to Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon. There, on the beach, we got to check out the wreckage of the Peter Iredale that ran aground October 25, 1906, EXACTLY 100 years before Jacob was born! It was pretty cool to see and it spread quite a ways along the beach.

Back in Washington, we went to see Mount St. Helens. We got a couple of views of it but the clouds made it difficult.

This is a regrowth area from the lahar. It was pretty cool to see as well.

And we hiked Lava Canyon

But the best part of the trip to Mount St. Helens was Ape Cave. Ape Cave is a 1900 year old lava tube from a previous eruption.

We hiked over 27 breakdown piles and scaled up an 8 ft lava falls wall with the only light coming from our flashlights and headlamps. 

Saw some cool formations and just the overall structure of the tube was pretty interesting.

Pretty fun! It took us three hours to navigate through the cave and make the short hike back to beginning. By the way, they do not recommend it for children under 10 but it was no problem for my 7 and 9 year-old hikers :)

(checking out a few more caves on our walk back)

(just a pretty area along the trail)

(Thought this was such a cool plant!)

Another very exciting thing that happened during our stay in Seaview was a visit from friends. Our friend Pattie, her daughter Faith and her daughter's friend Emily, came to stay overnight with us in our tiny home on their way to Seattle. It was a short visit, but always fun to squeeze more people into the RV and to catch up a little!

Those were the highlights of our visit. We also did a little swimming at the pool and playing in the sand at the beach. Let me remind you that it is summer (July 4th time) and this is what the beach was like most of the time.  Just a few people!  Definitely not like a beach in Florida or Texas this time of year!

(And this is probably why...It's so cold that the kids are just trying

 to soak up the heat from the sand!)

We watched sunsets and fireworks on the beach and even lit a few little fireworks of our own for the first time. 

 And we watched a magic show, 

visited an awesome 25 cent arcade in Astoria,

and rode some go-carts.

We also visited the World Kite Museum & Hall of Fame.  I really wanted to love this place and be so inspired that I would rush out and buy a kite but I wasn't.  It was just so dull and boring!  There was some good information and cool things to see but I think the presentation just wasn't exciting.

They gave examples of how kites have been used for purposes other than entertainment,

various styles of kites,

and an area where the kids could make their own kites.

As I write this, I think "Well, that looks pretty fun.  Maybe it was just a bad day for me."  But I don't think so.  Even the kids were pretty disappointed.

But a REALLY cool museum I can tell you about is the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon.  I strongly recommend this place!

The Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean in this area and those two forces coming together make for some very dangerous water conditions.  The sand bar and surrounding areas have been responsible for a multitude of ship wrecks giving this area the name of "Graveyard of the Pacific".  These treacherous conditions have presented the need for some pretty awesome vessels.

This is a 44 -foot CG-4430.  It is a self-righting, self-bailing, life boat with seven watertight compartments and is virtually unsinkable. On one occasion a 10,000 lb freighter lost control and ran into one of these and pushed it under a boat house (it had been moored).  After the wreckage was cleared, the boat popped up and turned upright! Pretty cool, eh?!  The boat has even gone end-over-end!

And because the sand bar is so dangerous to navigate, they have professional pilots (Columbia River Bar Pilots) who board approaching large vessels (cruise ships, barges, tankers, etc.) to help them navigate through and then they disembark.  And this is one of the boats that was used to accomplish such a feat.  The crew would drive this larger boat up close to the vessel needing to pass through the bar.  Then a smaller crew and the pilot would get in the small boat on the back and it would drive off the larger boat.  Imagine KITT from Knight Rider backing out of his semi while driving down the road.

                        

The small boat then moves over to the large vessel and the pilot jumps to it using a ladder. Once the trip through the sand bar is complete, the same happens in reverse:  the pilot climbs down the ladder, jumps to the small boat and then they drive back up onto the larger boat.  Sounds challenging already but you must also remember they are doing this all the while in some very dangerous sea conditions!  The videos showing these "missions" are truly impressive.  I believe it was only recently that they began to use helicopters for pilot transfer.

We also saw a video on this boat named Saishomaru.  This fishing boat was washed away during the 2011 tsunami in Japan.  Two years later and over 5,000 miles, the boat washed ashore at Cape Disappointment in Washington!

The kids enjoyed the museum as well.  And this was their favorite part.  They could push all the buttons and pull the levers to navigate their pretend ship!

And I must not end without mentioning the Bowpicker Restaurant.  It is located across the street from the maritime museum and serves only fish-n-chips.  We got a local recommendation and Greg wanted to try it out.  It really was delicious and the kids agreed! But get there early and be prepared to wait and then wait some more.  The line is comparable to waiting for famous BBQ in Texas!

We will next explore Oregon.  I am ready to move on!