Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Astoria: sightseeing, etc.

We did a lot of fun things during our stay in Astoria. We've already enjoyed the Maritime Museum, Fort Stevens State Park, the Astoria Column, and Fort Clatsop, so we decided to do some things that were a little different what is probably our tenth trip to the city.

One of the smaller adventures that we went on in Astoria is a long overdue trip to Custard King. This is Astoria's version of the burger, fries, and milkshake place that seems hang on throughout the generations. The unique thing about this place? It's still pretty good. Their chocolate banana milkshake was good enough to bring us back on the way home. No seating, just put your order in at the window.

We went for a drive Saturday afternoon that took us to another new place. We drove to the city limits and headed north onto Tongue Point. Tongue Point is owned almost completely by a shipping company and Job Corps. It is a mostly-forested peninsula that juts out into the Columbia River right before the river starts widening into the Pacific Ocean. The terrain is very steep and only one series of roads will take you all the way around the point. We found it by trial and error.

We were surprised to see that almost all of the homes on top of the point--even though the view was unbelievable--we're abandoned and had nearly all been vandalized. We drove around these homes until we wove our way down to the beach access and then back to the highway. Take a look at the pics for the awe-inspiring view.

Though it wasn't a first for us, it had been a while since we went to Yankee Trader. This is the most bizarre antique store ever. All the items that are for sale are arranged according to color and set up in a museum-like display (i.e., the yellow kitchen, the purple dining room, the brown den, the pastel nursery). Mannequins, stuffed animals, and plywood cutouts are posed with hats, pipes, and aprons, among the merchandise as if they were right at home with their particular setting and color scheme. I got plenty of pictures of this.

Pics T-B: Custard King (best burger place in Astoria), one of the many abandoned houses on Tongue Point, view from Tongue Point, Anne-Marie walking through a canopy of trees, me on the Tongue Point Beach footbridge, another nutty display at Yankee Trader

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