Beach fun!

On Saturday, we visited the Northern Oregon Coast.  I hadn't seen much of this before, and in previous posts, I showed what interested me most about these places on this day, with hungry short-legged children, and a nervous dog in tow.  Astoria is a place with no shortage of photographic subjects, that's for sure.  If I could have spent the day just walking up and down Commercial Street, I could have spent the whole day walking up and down Commercial street.  And there are so many other places to check out.  I mostly just really love the old architecture; most of it still unspoiled.

And when referring to my company that day, I really should say short-legged child.  I have a feeling Lily would have been up for the entire ball of fun I had planned, so long as I kept her fed and watered.  She's gotten to the age of being able to appreciate the scenery, and learn about the history behind it.

Ruby?  Not so much.  She did fully enjoy the Custard King, however.  She'll get there.  She's just... very... 9, at the moment.  So, we made sure to include some things that wouldn't make her want to scale a wall, as well.  We just scaled a big sand dune, instead!  And while I did manage to find a few really interesting things last time, we still had fun on the beach and at a few stopping points between Portland, and Astoria.

Next time I go, I want to be sure the Astoria Column is open again, and I will concentrate on the Astoria-Megler bridge, as well.  Lily and I have loose plans at this point for a mother and daughter weekend out there, so we can actually spend some time and see the things.  All the things.  Or at least more of the things.

Miss Lily, at the viewpoint overlooking the Columbia, and crossing to Longview.

Wild oats, at the mouth of the Columbia.

I'm calling this a Roarschach  Mandala.  Lily wandered into the surf with her rain boots on.  They filled with water, and I emptied them for her, onto the sand.  It made some fun textural patterns.

Miss Ruby, in her happy place, at last.  None of this urban hiking crap for her.  Why do people like that???

Happy kiddo.

Can we please be done, Mommy?  The beach kind of freaks me the hell out.  Seriously.  You humans are so damn weird.

Shipwreck Porn.

On Saturday, we went to check out the Wreck Of The Peter Iredale.  To my disappointment, there were a LOT of people on this beach.  It made for quite a challenge, in trying to get any photos of it.  It actually made me a bit sad, because people were using it as a towel rack, and letting their kids climb all over it, as if it were a piece of playground equipment.  The only thing I could think, was "Adventures in Tetanus, anyone?"

But seriously, I did manage to get a few, and the kids who were playing on the thing were really nice about letting me go in there for a bit to get the photos.  After all, the ocean was right there, and it was nice and warm.

If I come back here, it will be during the winter months, when there aren't likely to be very many people.  The beach was PACKED.

I am not the type of dog that could keep you waiting...

Yesterday, we went to Astoria, and Fort Stevens Park.  There are so many things to capture in Astoria, but yesterday, I felt compelled by these Sea Lions.  There were so many of them, my mind was blown.  I had heard about how they had taken over a marina on the news, but walking down there to actually see them was still quite a trip!

I was somewhat saddened to see that some of them had numbers carved into their backs, and what is probably a necessary cage at one end of the marina.

Anyway, they were still adorable, and LOUD!  I could not believe how vocal they were.  We spent a good long while here, just watching them.