An Astoria Sunday

So our goal in coming to Astoria was to attend church today, and that goals was accomplished.  We REALLY enjoyed the service at Coastline Christian Fellowship, which is located on highway 202 about 7-8 miles south of Astoria out in the "country".  We attended the second service, felt the Pastor held firm to the believe of teaching strictly out of the bible, verse by verse, and we both felt a wonder spirit there.

After church we tried to deal with seeing things among the drizzle, the constant drizzle, which lasted most of the day....and our exhaustion of being on the move so much over the past couple of weeks.  So we pretty much had an easy day, but we did do a small bit of exploring.

Then, there was the battle we had with the dogs.  To our astonishment, we were driving down this road, and the dogs went CRAZY...barking, going around in circles, trying to jump into the front seat, and scratching at the windows as if they were saying "look, stop!"  So we did, and to our astonishment, this is what we saw....

 Marcia, I think they are excited about that white building over there....perhaps they saw a couple of dogs hanging around or something....

 No, she says, look at the name on top of the building.....it's Arnie's Cafe......what is that sign in the window??

So we get a bit closer, and it was obvious what they were so excited about!

I think they miss their Uncle Arny and his daily Pup-Peroni treat.....even though we give them one each day!  I even say, "It's time for your Uncle Arny Treat".

Ok, back to our day....

We first visited the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, which we again were able to use our National Park Pass with.  But with the drizzle, we decided to skip the walk/scooter ride down to Fort Clatsop, which was reconstructed back in the 1950's.  We did drive around the park a bit looking for signs of wild life, but to no avail.

Then we drove over to Fort Stevens State Park, which is right near the KOA.  We drove out the Jetty Drive, but the drizzle was more like a rain over there, and there was no way to see the Lighthouse on the other side of the Columbia River at Cape Disappointment.

We did see the remains of the ship wreck of the Peter Iredale.  The ship ran aground in 1906 trying to find the opening to the Columbia River.  It was sailing from Salina Cruz, Mexico with a crew of 27, leaving around September 26th.   On October 25th, at 3:20 a.m., the Captain sighted Tillamook Rock Lighthouse.  Instead of waiting for daylight, they tried to enter the mouth of the River in a thick mist and a rising tide.  Storng winds from the west moved it too close to the shore.  No hands were lost, and the remains of the ship, much of it covered in sand, remains today.  There was little damage to the hull and plans were made to tow the ship back to sea, but after several weeks waiting for favorable weather and ocean conditions, the ship had listed to the port (left) and become embedded in the sands. She was sold for scrap.

Yep, that was it...sigh

Fort Stevens was an American military installation which guarded the mouth of the Columbia River.  It was built near the end of the civil war, and named for Isaac Stevens, a slain Civil War General and Washington Territory Governor.  It was an active base from 1863-1947.

It also hold the distinction of being the only miliatry base on the Main Land which was shelled by the Japanese during WW2.  (Yes, oil fields were also shelled in Santa Barbara, Ca, but they were not a military base.)  The base NEVER fired back on the Japanese Submarine which attacked it.  Speculation on why leads one to belive that they did not want the enemy to know exactly where the "big guns" were located...or that there were even big guns there.  The submarine moved on to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, according to Japanese documents.

Above is the upper part of one of the WW2 gun bunkers.  The circle area is where the large gun would have been located.  Today the view of the ocean is gone due to the underbrush growth between the bunker and the ocean.

Here is the inside of a bunker, where ammunition might have been stored, and where a view of the ocean could been seen through now boarded up holes.

Over by the main part of the fort, this bunker is available, but we did not walk over to it.  Below is just some older guns which once helped to guard the opening to the Columbia River.

Well, that was about it for the day.  I think we are both ready to see the sun again, and I think we will have that opportunity the next few days as we visit the Mount Saint Helen area.