Wishing I Were Still On Vacation

Cape Disappointment was a bit of that and more.  The weather on Saturday was gloomy, foggy, and cold.  By this day I was hurting more than words could say and wishing I had taken some Vicodin, which I had left in my room.

J signed us in to the US Coast Guard station and asked if we could go up to the lighthouse and take pictures.  Because I'm handicapped and J is military a very nice Coast Guard guy decided to give us a tour.  The E-3 punched in his codes and opened up the gate to let us drive through escorted.  I think I would have better appreciated the view had there been more than fog.

Cape Disappointment Lighthouse, built in 1856, is one of the oldest structures in the Northwest and is located 4 miles southwest of Ilwaco, WA.

Me on my scootie-puff Junior (reference to Futurama). J had determined that my cane was not going to be enough for the Fort Clatsop Visitor Center.  I had to agree.  I didn't even know that they had these scooters nor did I think they would do the trails.  I've never used one before but it was quite a bit of fun.

Fort Clatsop, located closer to Warrenton than Astoria, was the  winter camp for the Corps of Discovery from December 1805 to March 1806.  Think Lewis and Clark.

This is a replica of the winter camp, rebuilt in 2005 due to a fire.  Oh and yes, the scootie-puff did make it through the trails and the boardwalks nicely.  I was quite pleased and almost put it on rabbit to make J run but I couldn't be that mean.


By noon most of the fog had cleared and the day finally warmed up.  Yay!

"Here at Camp Rilea Mom they are making me do pull-ups.  Please send money for hand chalk.  Love, your son."  Okay so he did the chin-ups/pull-ups just to show off.  I can't do them but it is nice to look at a pleasing figure of a male specimen do them just to show off.

We used our military identification cards to gain access to Camp Rilea.  They were doing live fire exercises so I felt right at home with all the gun noise.  J has actually been wanting to check this place out for a while ever since a job directive had him looking at the post data.

Nothing to see or much to do here except watch out for duck and deer feces.  No that isn't green bean baby food on the ground dear.

The North Coast Craft Beer Trail.  Wait what?  I thought that was Cannon Beach, OR's Haystack.  Well okay it is but we didn't go here for that though the scenery was really pretty.

Before J deploys I picked out a little vacation surprise for him.  I told him I'd take him on a trail.  Then when we got into Oregon I explained its the craft beer trail and that made him happy.  We started at the Wet Dog and ended up at the Lumberyard.  Inbetween was the purchase of salt water taffy, more beer and fudge.  Oh and a few postcards too.

Before we ended Saturday night at the Lumberyard we stopped in at the hardware store for some screw and brew.  Yes you can buy a beer and a screw here or lock or bug swatter.

J decided that of all the places and brews he tried, I didn't drink anything stronger than water, he preferred the strawberry blonde beer at the Wet Dog.  It actually has strawberries, quite a few pints of strawberries, brewed into the mixed.  No seed, no mess just good taste.

Oh if I sound a bit cranky I am.  One of the places we ate lunch at decided to take out not only what we signed for but I'm guessing someone else's bill for food too.  I caught the error on line at my bank and called them today.  I'm not happy about that.  Avoid Dundee's Pub and Grill in Seaside, OR since they made the mistake and if they don't correct it I'm going to write them one heck of a nasty letter since the extra I was charged was more than double my own bill.  The food wasn't all that good either.  So far I have to say that the best tasting clam chowder I've ever had was at the Timberhouse on the Olympic Loop in Northern Washington.