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

The January 2010 Trip to Astoria

We always go to Astoria in September, so making the trip in January was a whole different experience.
Clementine's was almost completely empty. We had the whole second floor to ourselves. We found out on Saturday morning at breakfast that it was just us and one other lady staying next door, along with Judith, the innkeeper.

For years we've gone to T. Paul's Urban Cafe downtown Astoria and loved it every time, so we were pretty stoked when Judith told us they'd opened a new semi-formal restaurant across from the Hotel Elliot. Sounded like a good idea, so we drove a few blocks down to T. Paul's Supper Club. The food was awesome and the staff was a lot of fun.

We awoke Saturday to beautiful sunshine and some fancy egg dish by Innkeeper-turned-Chef Judith. That inspired us to get an early start shopping downtown Astoria, which is usually more like walking around and pointing at stuff. (Nothing like blowing time with each other.)

Meandering up and down Commercial Street we went to junk stores, antique stores, the guitar stores (that was me), other stores. A little lunch at the Urban Cafe. Then a stroll to the Liberty Theatre box office to pick up tickets to Hello, Dolly! Was I supposed to end the last sentence with a period, or just leave it?
Another night in the empty-but-us B&B and morning with Judith and dutch babies, which are always fantastic. After reluctantly checking out, we went back downtown for a quick trip to buy stuff for a Christmas Party we host (yes, in 11 months...less crowds in January).
Next, we decided to take a driving tour of the city. There's an incredible amount of old Victorian-style houses and churches all over Astoria, so we drove almost every block on the north side of town and took as many pictures as possible. In the middle of our tour, we took a break and ate lunch at Baked Alaska. It was nice to chat with Chef Chris Holen again. He made us promise we would be back in September.
We continued on our tour of Astoria by taking a trip to Tongue Point, like we did in 2007. But this time it was raining, so we decided, instead of getting out and looking around at the point, we would head west toward the so-called "Goon Docks". For years, we'd heard sea lions barking whenever we'd visited town, and on our very first anniversary trip, Carolyn from Benjamin Young Inn told us that's where they were.

When we pulled up to the area around Pier 39, we could see the sea lions out in the distance. It was pouring rain, but we were sure it was only a short walk to get a good picture. Wrong! I think the sea lions we thought were so close were really on maybe Pier 4. Or at least we found out it was the opposite side of the docks.

So, we got our sea lion picture and Anne-Marie hid in the entryway of a creepy government building (located at the end of the street we should have turned on in the first place) while I jogged the 1/4 mile back to the car. I was most of the way to pneumonia and heart palpitations when I picked up Anne-Marie. We decided it was time to drive home.
When we got home both of the kids saw us and ran straight for us. And even though we tried our best not to talk or think of the kids during the trip, it was sure nice to be with them again.

Mom on permanent vacation

Friday, December 20th is the end of over 40 years for my mom.  No more commuting, no more work orders, no more co-workers, no more weekends.  Just permanent vacation.  She is retiring and her last day is today.

Even though she was really young and didn't have a lot of education, my mom started her career as a CNA (because back then I think you only had to read a brochure and you were considered certified).  She took a break from her career because of kids and stuff and went back to the hospital to work, but her CNA certification had run out and the requirements were a lot more demanding to renew, so she started work in the housekeeping department.  That's where she worked for the entire time I was a little kid.

She had all kinds of gross stories that I won't get into here, but she worked hard and tried to make the housekeeping department the best it could be.  She even got a night gig cleaning the hospital's business office five blocks up the road for extra money.  Somehow she roped my brother and I into going along and helping her do the work, which was completely against every child labor law in America.  I think we got home at midnight on Thursdays on the days when we did that.

After a decade at the hospital, Mom had risen to supervisor, but the federal prison had just opened up down the road from our town and the government money and benefits were way better, so she applied to be a prison guard.  Yes, that really happened.  My mom was a prison guard for a couple years with the feds.

After getting tired of the social circles at the prison, Mom quit, but struggled to find the next thing.  She worked in commercial laundry, made dental equipment, provided room service food for NBA all-stars at a fancy resort (not kidding, I have autographs to prove it), cleaned hotel rooms, delivered phone books and probably a half-dozen other things.

Mom and I around that time

When we moved away from the outlying area to the metro area, we knew for sure Mom would get that job that she'd been trying to get for months.  She though she found it when she got hired on to the custodial team at a very-exclusive private school on the other side of the Portland area.  It was exciting because it was the best-paying, career-track job opportunity that she had been given since the prison and we planned our lives around it.

I was in my mid-teens and mostly what I remember is that the job was swing shift, so I never saw Mom outside of the weekends and that the lost and found of the school was loaded with all kinds of expensive stuff that would eventually be brought home to me.  The kids at the school were pretty wealthy, so I remember wearing crazy-looking shoes and at least one Armani shirt and getting a free Discman.  It was an amazing perk.

But the commute was crazy, the workload was unreasonable and the schedule was disastrous for our family.  I remember we were all kind of disappointed, but Mom looked for another job during the day and worked during the evening.  Around the time I turned 17, she finally found the job she was looking for.

Mom got hired as a janitor with the local housing authority and started cleaning the housing projects off of Columbia Boulevard in North Portland.  It probably was a pretty miserable start for what she knew was a good opportunity that had potential for advancement (and once again government benefits).  I'm sure you know that Mom kept on cleanin' and looking for her shot to move up.

She got it after a couple of years of biding her time (and biting her tongue) with a promotion to the mid-level position as a "laborer".  That mean she had to learn how to take care of the grounds and landscaping, but also meant she had to get her CDL and learn how to drive the garbage truck, because housing has their own trash service for all the residents.  Yep--not my dad--my MOM was a prison guard, hospitality for NBA stars and drove a garbage truck for low-income housing.

But her break at the laborer tier at housing didn't stick her with the garbage truck.  Instead Mom got the more desirable gig of being able to drive the RECYCLING TRUCK!  By the time I was in college, Mom was spending her days driving a 25-ton recycling truck around Portland, but still looking for the next opportunity.

Around the time when Anne-Marie and I got married, a position on the maintenance team opened at Housing and Mom got the job.  So far she knew the best way to mop a floor, stand down an inmate, and activate the compactor on a garbage truck.  This job was the one where she learned how to do everything else.

Mom spent the final 17 or so years of her 20+ year career at the housing authority fixing bathtubs, light fixtures, doors and learning when to just run back out the door and call the exterminator.  When I renovated my house these last two years, she was involved in every step using that knowledge and experience she'd gained.  (Or pretended she gained, because when it came down to it she would never say it couldn't be done.)

She spent most of my adult life working as the go-to maintenance mechanic at different properties around Portland and watched the residents move in, move out, get arrested, die.  You name it.  She's seen it all.

And she's nearly done it all in these more-than-forty years.  Done it all, but now she's just done.

Congratulations on your next chapter, Mom!  I hope that now you get to spend a little time doing something other than working.  Matter of fact, I think we need a babysitter week after next...