One of the things I loved the most about Washington (besides the ocean) was how everything was so green. Everywhere we went was thick with foliage, lush and green! It was gorgeous~
But along with that THICK GREEN foliage came signs and warnings of what ELSE was out there...we saw signs for poison oak and RATTLESNAKES I had never actually seen poison oak (above) other than in pictures...yep, it looks the same. THANK goodness that we never crossed paths with any rattlesnakes I'm afraid they wouldn't have been the little "sand rattlers that we have on the hill by my house, more like a large DIAMOND BACK. I'm glad they avoided the trails that we were on.
On our travels we fell upon a darling little town called Astoria. It was packed full of houses built against the hills and narrow steep roads. Deron's parents had actually been here before and wanted to take us up to the "Column" that was at the top of the town, high on a hill. It was a tall cement tube that you could climb up and see out across the valley...BUT TO GET TO THE COLUMN we had to drive up many STEEP (steep is putting it lightly) roads....roads where I was sure our car was going to flip over backwards (YES, saying I was terrified was putting it lightly). We were driving our suburban, these roads were made for small compact cars...steep and narrow....BUT we made it!
(Mom, Dad and Celeste)
I snapped this picture from the parking lot before climbing up the column...THIS water that you are seeing is NOT the ocean, NOT a lake...BUT the Columbia river, AND YES, those are BARGES on the river...VERY LARGE BARGES.
If you look really close at the picture below you can see not only the town, but a bridge (road) that goes out across the river to the other side. When we left Astoria, we had to go across that bridge...it was 4.5 miles long, which makes the river at that spot 4.5 miles wide....CRAZY! I (being a very sheltered soul) had no idea there were rivers that wide...in our area, we call things that big a LAKE. The columbia river dumps directly into the ocean...its amazing the things you see and learn when you travel.
The view from the top of the column was AMAZING...I'm extremely frightened by heights, but I braved the stairs of the column, went to the top and snapped some pictures (above and below) and then went back down with my knees shaking...(but kudo's to me for doing it...right?!)
Deron and has family stayed up at the top for awhile, even getting right against the edge, looking down and waving..ohhhhhh those brave, brave souls!
Washington was fabulous, amazing, breathtaking, overwhelming, cold, foggy, gorgeous, peaceful AND wonderful! I love vacations, I love seeing new things, I love spending time with my in-laws, I love eating new kinds of food, I love buying souvenirs I love being "chore free"....it was a wonderful trip and I'm so glad we got to go, see all we saw and do all that we did. I look forward to another trip........to somewhere......sometime! Until then, I will relish the memories and experiences we had for 9 wonderful days!
0 comments:
Post a Comment