Astoria, Eating and Cycling

I promised photos of our trip to Astoria, and they are finally here. Ralph and I went to Astoria to celebrate our 9th anniversary ALL.BY.OURSELVES this month. The trip was nothing but a delight, and I loved every minute of it. We stayed at the very lovely Cannery Pier Hotel which was recommended by a sweet friend (& witty blogger) and her husband AND an old facebook friend. It was hands down my favorite hotel in the world (not that I travel so much) and I would love to go stay there again. And again. And again.

The room with a view was cozy and had a very at home feeling. Complete with fireplace & a balcony that sat about 5 feet about the river at high tide. (If you think I'm all mixed up, I'm not. Astoria sits at the mouth of the Columbia river where it flows into the ocean. It was lovely to have the window open and full view of the water, sea life, freighters and tug boats moving to and fro. I loved it. We could have stayed in the Hotel the entire weekend. But we didn't....the Hotel had loaner cruisers- so we spent a good part of the weekend on those. Dinking around downtown, riding around the shoreline checking out all the old piers and the little shops and eatieries along the way. Checking out just what an ancient fishing town is really made of and all those lovely bits of history. Checking out all the fun things....sea lions included. I've never been so close and never more respectful of these huge beasties as when I was standing with my back to them for a photo opp. I know I look calm and cool, but I was NERVOUS. Add that to beautiful (not a cloud in the usually rainy) skies and lovely weather and all you have is way mellow, lovely, do-nothing-and-loving-it days. It was wonderful. Did I say that?

For dinner we hit Fort George Brewery and Rogue Brewerywhere we played some serious poolYum, and yum and fun. Made me feel young again. We laughed as we dreamed we'd still be frequenting breweries when our kiddos are grown and dragging them to those boring places of the old days.

We rode bikes, went to the Astor Column, went to the Maritime Museum, rode bikes, took a nap, walked downtown, ate, went to a movie, slept in, rode bikes, you know I took a long hot bath in a beautiful tub, took photos, laughed and had a beautiful time.

On the way home we made a stop in Portland to go to a favorite (world's largest) bookstore, we read awhile because we're geeky like that then had lunch at a favorite yummy place that sells awesome lettuce wraps because we don't have a P.F. Changs for miles and miles.

The entire weekend was dreamy. I highly recommend quiet vacations in sleepy interesting towns where there's not too much to do or see so that you have the luxury of....rest.

Ah.