After we parted ways from our sweet Minerva-girl, we continued up the Oregon Coast to our next camping spot: Astoria. In our south-to-north trip, we were camping in a lot of diverse campgrounds and parks, and I was definitely curious about this one. Fort Stevens State Park was not only supposed to have all manner of walking trails and military relics, but also hundreds of campsites, making it the largest campground we'd visit on the whole trip. Farewell to the tiny unmanned gatehouse with the sign-in envelopes that we'd encountered on our arrival in Coos Bay. Here there was a registration building with multiple service windows, like a bank, and a "Please form a line here" sign as if they were expecting a crowd. I checked in and located our campsite on the MAP (yup, big enough to need directions around this place) to lead my guys to *sniff!* our first campsite without Minerva. It was gorgeous: filled with trees, hardly any other campers occupying the sites near us, and the site backed up to a small, woody hillside filled with shrubs for extra privacy. We got out of the car to examine our quiet paradise, shutting the doors of the Mini quickly because there seemed to be a lot of mosquitoes around. Scratch that; a TON of mosquitoes around. Okay, now they appear to be swarming.
I cracked open the car trunk to extract our bug repellent, being used for the first time yet. I'd searched at our local natural/organic food store for a kid-friendly, herbal bug repellent that did not contain DEET, so that we could all use the same bottle and feel free to spray wildly around ourselves if the need arose. I shook it up and sprayed, taking care to avoid Alton's face. Producing a snack for him, we quietly observed some deer munching through the nearby bushes while Andy unfolded the tent. The mosquitoes were undeterred, giggling at our weak citronella essential oils and assessing the tenderest possible patches of skin to bite. They clustered all over Alton's little granola bar and landed on our clothes, hands, hats, and hair. I put a halt to the tent setup in order to backtrack to the ranger station and see if we could switch campsites. We could, but he recommended that we cruise the hundreds of other site loops to see if there was one that suited us better. With the mosquitoes buzzing actively everywhere and many sites located near heavily bushed areas or standing water (hmm, Mosquito Mystery no more...), in the end we decided to take advantage of our dog-free status and stay in a yurt!
The yurts were a collection of tentlike, semi-permanent structures with solid floors, half-walls, doors, and a little porch. Around them, the skeeter hordes were miraculously thin, and a little table plus futon-style bunkbeds meant that we could eat AND hang out inside to stay unbitten if we liked.
No dogs allowed in the yurts, so we were super-lucky to opt in to this camping luxury on our first Minerva-free camping foray, because the pouring rain started up that night! All that first night and the next day, the showers deluged on and off while we listened to the pitter-patter on our yurt roof. Alton was unfazed and went stump hopping in the lighter sprinkles.
The next day, we were ready for a little Astoria sightseeing. Astoria is situated on the Oregon-Washington border, where the mouth of the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. Wet, meet wetter. Besides the enormous bridge at the beginning of this post, Astoria is also known for its port and maritime industry...
...and for the Goonies movie locations!
We took ourselves on a little driving tour to visit the house from the film,
the jail,
the museum,
and the sea lions.
Wait, sea lions!?
While we stood at the Le Mansion de Goonies high on top of a hill, incessant barking drew our attention to the marina far below. We decided to investigate the harbor to see if we could find the source of the noise (expecting maybe one or two big, vocal bulls), and came across dozens and dozens of bellowing sea lions! Hope nobody needs to board a boat anytime soon.
We lunched at a fun little health food cafe, with Alton happily chowing down on his meal. Proud of his appetite, we promised him a special treat after lunch since we'd noticed a small bakery case near the cash register. Andy went to go check it out and returned looking skeptical. "They only have bittersweet chocolate truffles and some kind of ginger cookie--he probably won't like anything there." I assured Andy that Alton had a sophisticated palate and would enjoy the chocolate, bittersweet or no. Yum! He munched it down and licked the unsweetened cocoa powder off his fingers!
That was the end of our sojourn in Astoria, our last stop in Oregon. The tradeoff for bunking down in the yurt was that we could only stay two nights instead of three, so after a home-cooked yurt meal, we spent the night and awakened ready to drive north. The sun was shining on a really beautiful drive through Washington state as we cruised past forests, rivers, lakes, and more trees, stopping for food and a milkshake in Olympia.
Our next destination was Port Angeles, WA. Originally we'd planned to just spend one night there in order to be close enough to catch the Victoria Ferry early in the morning, but with our Astoria trip cut a night short, we'd end up staying two nights in a Port Angeles hotel before our camping reservations in B.C. would begin. Surveying our dire need for clean laundry after checking in to the hotel, we saw that our extra night would definitely be advantageous in the washing machine respect!
Minerva, we didn't forget you! You are a seniors' waterside community on Highway 101!
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