Astoria, Oregon
This morning we would get a feeling for the power generated when a mighty river meets a greater ocean. There was an early wake-up as the National Geographic Sea Bird made her way out toward the famous (or infamous) Columbia River Bar. Large ships traveling over the bar have to take pilots aboard to make sure they are navigated safely over the shifting sands that dump out of the mighty River of the West as her waters mingle with the powerful Pacific Ocean. The rocking and rolling and heavy mist met us as we turned around and headed back to Astoria for our day’s activities.
The first part of the morning was spent at Fort Clatsop, the 1805-6 wintering home of the Corps of Discovery. The rebuilt replica showed us the cramped-yet-cozy confines for the group as they recovered from a long trip west. Later in the morning we enjoyed the displays at the Columbia River Maritime Museum, one of the best such museums in the country. The displays were magnificent and showed the changing technologies used along the river and in the ocean throughout history.
After lunch there was a chance to see the Washington side of the Columbia River. After venturing across the very long Astoria Megler Bridge we visited Cape Disappointment, named so because a naval explorer in the region earlier than Lewis and Clark was disappointed that he could not find the entrance to the Columbia River on the north side of the large bay. Some of us looked at the displays while others ventured down the well-maintained path to a white sand and driftwood beach and imagined what Lewis & Clark would have remarked as they stood in the same spot some 205 years earlier. It was a fitting end to our expedition from Portland to Idaho and back to the coast.
