Day Trip to Astoria: Too Hot to Stay in Town...

Will and I are researchers at heart--and by training too--so when we were planning to move to the Pacific northwest, we read about the notoriously gloomy and wet weather.  People called it "English climate," and we thought we were mostly prepared for that.  After all, we spent over a year (Will spent two) living in England.  For our initial round of packing, we included several waterproof jackets, scarves, and umbrellas.  We were ready!

Then we arrived in Portland in the first part of July.  And it was been a loooong series of 90+ days of full sun--except the occasional 101- or 104-degree days.  Yes, it is true that the string is sometimes snapped with an outlier 72-degree day.  (Thank goodness for small miracles!)  But otherwise, it's been SUNNY and HOT!

Of course, it turns out--when you probe a bit deeper--that Pacific northwest summers have ALWAYS been dry and sunny, if not quite this hot.  Unfortunately, it sounds like all the sunlight hours Portland gets are concentrated in July and August.  Those two months hog all the annual sunlight statistics, and the rest of the months just have to fend for themselves.  No wonder there is constant chatter about the rate of depression, the best ways to use "happy lamps," how just heading east to Hood River alleviates one's mood, etc.

Having suffered through so many muggy and humid Chicago summers, we had enough survival instincts to lease an apartment with air-conditioning, but we were still clearly caught off guard by this hot weather.  Pretty much, each weekend found us searching for ways to escape the city heat.

Couple of weekends ago, on a last-minute whim (we LOVE that we can do this!) we decided that we could not last another minute in the heat, and so we filled up some water bottles and took Katie for another drive to the coast.  Since we already visited Cannon Beach, we went the other way on Highway 101 and went further up north to Astoria.  And what a charming little town that is!

We stopped at the Visitor Center (handy bathrooms!), and we took the kindly attendant's advice of (free) parking at the Columbia River Maritime Museum before exploring the rest of the town.

Tripadvisor told us to have lunch at the Bowpicker Fish and Chips, and clearly a LOT of people got similar suggestions (above).  We were lucky enough to be only the fifth in line, and so we avoided the much longer line that formed as soon as we got our food.

I typically get tempura or beer-battered cod, so I was a bit surprised at what seemed less light and crisp a batter.  And the fish shape was not what I usually associated with fish and chips either.  It turned out that's because their fish of choice is tuna.  We never had tuna as fish-and-chips, but it was very tasty.  (We preferred this tuna over the salmon that was prepared similarly in Cannon Beach.) . Basic menu, very few choices, $1 per drink that you serve yourself from ice-filled coolers.  Picnic benches shared by as many people as possible.  We quite enjoyed this experience!

After lunch, we started walking toward downtown when we came upon Fort George Brewery.  Will insists that it was completely by chance that we fell upon one of the microbreweries he had been itching to visit, but I have my suspicions...  There was a wait for dog-friendly patio seating, but since we didn't need food, they encouraged us to get a beer and stand against the railing (as we did, pictured above).  We had a lovely view of the water in front of us, and the town beneath us.

A stroll through a very active and lively Sunday farmer's market yielded some cherries and apricots, and then we walked along the rails of the Riverfront Trolley (above), before arriving at a place which afforded us more wonderful waterfront views (below).

On our leisurely saunter back to our car, we happened to be paused in front of Frite & Scoop, which was right on the pier.  Will's quick research informed us that it was the best-rated ice cream shop in Astoria.  How can we pass that up?  A very long wait later, we enjoyed some delicious French custard style ice cream: their signature Hokey Pokey (with honeycomb toffee), and an unusual flavor that combined turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and cardamom with golden cookie pieces.  It was much more mild (and appetizing) than it sounds.  Really!

We decided not to sit in the long line of traffic back on 101 and instead took a series of precariously sharp and twisty side roads back home.  We're not sure we would take that "short cut" in the winter, but it's quite likely that we won't need to escape the heat by driving to the coast in the winter.  It will be the other direction we'll head then, to get some sun...