Post 10: Astoria, OR

Its Sunday morning at the Hotel Elliot in Astoria Oregon, where we are making up for the miserable night spent at the 'Worst (price gouging, dated, noisy & dirty) Western' in Astoria, ruining an otherwise pleasant day taking the slow road south from Lake Quinault. Screeching plumbing and barking dogs across the hall, and we're done staying at another BW, EVER. It was a big let down after the two great nights at Lake Quinault. The day we arrived there from Victoria we cooled off in the lake, and we were glad that the next day was 20 degrees cooler.

After check out on Friday we took the Moclips Hwy out to the coast and it was beautiful. There were a few clear cut operations in what appeared to be old growth forest, hauling future 2x4's, OSB and T111 to the mill. Sun broke through the overcast as we neared the coast, and it was smooth sailing (one garage sale stop) all the way to Westport. We had a really good lunch at the One Eye Crab where Judy picked and devoured a whole crab. Amazing but true — we were driving through South Bend shortly after the merge of 101 and the coast hwy we'd been traveling on and this big Dodge pulling a 5th wheel got our attention. It was Dave and Trudy Vestal from Hangtown, returning home after a visit to Vancouver, BC. We talked a while and they were soon out of sight. I should have got gas then and we were sweating it all the way to Naselle. It was getting late to find a decent motel on a Friday so we opted for the BW for $159, yikes!

Saturday we road the Astoria Riverfront Trolley and got the scoop on all the buildings and business' along the waterfront. Then lunch and antiquing, and an hour wait till our room at the Hotel Elliot was ready. We walked all over town and dined at Clement's. The food and wine was very good and we had a wonderful time. Astoria has a Sunday Market that started setting up about 6:30 this morning, and we wandered though more than 3 blocks of vendors selling veggies & crafts, etc. Judy bought some things, and I got info on the pop up canopies.

We will be checking out in a few so until the next stop in who knows where, it's Steve & Judy signing off for now.