We are in the car headed to see
Alejandro Escovado in concert tonight at the Doug Fir in Portland,
Oregon. We have spent the last four days parked here in Warrenton
visiting Jackson's parents and seeing everything this little town has
to offer. A haunted gun battery, the column, a B-E-A UTIFUL
coastline, we made everything from crepes, to pies, to smoothies from
wild picked blackberries and blueberries. Made cancer fighting
persimmon tea from a tree in the backyard, had a BLAST with the
Jacksons, went to downtown Astoria and it's sunday market and we even
went to the beach to watch the sunset. I am definitely adding
Warrenton, Oregon to my places to retire.
This state is pretty wonderful and the
people in it are awesome. I can't say enough good about it, also it's
a stones throw away from Canada which is fantastic because that place
rocks on all sorts of levels.
We went to go see Russel Battery, a
haunted gun battery used in WWII to watch the river against attack
from the Japanese. If there isn't a bunch of kids running around
screaming their heads off the place is pretty cool. If you visit the
battery after dark you get generally creepy vibes the only light that
touches the inside walls is from a flashlight or camera flash. We had
a cannon dslr that just didn't want to focus in the dark and in one
room it took an exposure so long that we thought the camera turned
off [it was over 30 seconds of exposure before we figured something
was up] It was really fun and I definitely would want to come back
and do it again some day.
Blackberries are a weed around here and
they grow everywhere. We went on an hour long walk and picked enough
berries to make two pies and smoothies, and that was just along the
main walking path.
Downtown Astoria is wonderful with all
of it's historic buildings, original skylights in the sidewalk to the
service tunnels underneath, and classic cars galore! It's like a city
frozen in time. The Sunday market is an open tent vendor market where
people sell their local crafts, food, furniture, clothing,
everything! Its pretty neato. We walked around there for a bit and
went to the salty dog for lunch. The food was good, and the view was
great, huge windows opening up into the bay to watch the shipping
boats as they come into port. The salty dog is also a brewery and you
can watch them make it through the window. When we came out there was
four barrels of hopps sitting on the curb [and being a goof ball I
picked up a handful and tried it because I saw it on a tv show once.]
The column was neat, 164 steps to the
top and you get a 360 view of the coastline, one of the longest
bridges in America and a great view of the mainland. They have those
little wood gliders that you can take to the top and throw off which
is REALLY cool [they are made of balsa, so they decompose naturally
if they cannot be recovered [like when the coastal wind takes it
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay inland.]
The Jacksons are AWESOME people, [now I
know where our Jackson gets it] I had an absolute blast with them,
learned about the flora of Oregon and used it to make some awesome
wildberry foodstuffs! Blackberry crepes anyone? How about a fruit
smoothie or a blueberry pie? All possible because of them. Who needs
a city when you can live in an awesome small town instead! Not to
mention their AWESOME collection of classic trucks including a 66
chevy panel van. This family is the embodiment of “good people”
and I am honored to have had the opportunity to meet them.
On to Portland to listen to some good
music made possible because of MY awesome family! [Don't awesome
families rock?]
