Today our plan was to be out and about in the morning and back at the condo for a slower afternoon and evening. We are fans of national parks, so as we planned our day, we knew we wanted to spend some time at Lewis and Clark National Historic Park. What we didn’t know was that the park covers a variety of different locations scattered over the Astoria area as well as across the river in Washington, which is where our current base of operations is located. This morning we visited a number of those locations, spending time at Fort Clatsop, Netul Landing, and Middle Village-Station Camp. We learned a ton about the expedition, far more details than we ever got in the classroom. Fort Clatsop is a replica of the fort they built to weather one winter and was yet another reminder to me of how grateful I am for the many modern conveniences we enjoy. We learned a lot about how the native Indian tribes played a huge part in keeping the explorers alive as they taught them how to live off the land far from any of the resources the explorers were accustomed to back in the east. And we discovered just how difficult a journey it was. When we think of a cross country trek, we think in terms of days or maybe weeks if we are taking our time. But for these explorers, it was years of hard travel.
We also stopped at North Head Lighthouse at Cape Disappointment on the Washington side of the river. We put that stop on our itinerary because you can tour that particular lighthouse. As folks who live far away from any sizeable bodies of water (yes, there is the Great Salt Lake, but is has shrunk so much since I was a kid that we’ve taken to calling it the Great Salt Puddle) we were definitely interested in climbing to the top of a lighthouse. Only small groups are allowed to climb the lighthouse at a time, so we had a bit of a wait. The coast guard was doing some training just off the coast right next to the lighthouse, so all the boys hung out and watched them practice water rescues. It was pretty darn cold outside with the wind, so Malia and I waited inside the base of the lighthouse and chatted with the lady manning the desk. Her husband was the one handling the visitors at the top of the lighthouse, and apparently this is a seasonal gig for them. They don’t actually live in the area but drive their RV out and park it for the busy summer season. Anyway, we had a nice chat and the boys got to watch a helicopter hover for a span.
Once it was our turn, we took the trek up and were treated to a short lecture and question answering session. We learned specifics about North Head lighthouse as well as some tidbits about lighthouses in general, things like the fact that the flashing light pattern is different in each lighthouse so that ships at sea know exactly where they are when they see the lights. The same thing is achieved in daylight hours by the distinctive paint design on each lighthouse. It was a very informative visit, much more interesting than we had expected.
The rest of our day consisted of stopping by a local fresh fish market to buy some salmon and halibut, playing games, eating some yummy fish, and consuming far too much ice cream. When we picked up frozen treats for Matthew and Malia post Tillamook tour, we got some for the rest of us as well. And it is vacation, so some food splurges are expected, right? Anyway, our busy morning was followed by a relaxing afternoon and evening. Today was a good mix of go and stay.
