From Olympia to Portland

Hello All,
Tuesday was a long, but enjoyable day. We left Olympia at 11am and did not get to our hotel until after 10pm. By the time we unloaded and got ready for bed it was midnight. So what did we all see yesterday? Well, before we could leave the Olympia area we had to go back to Tumwater Falls and take a picture of the Crosby House (as in Bing Crosby, this was his grandparents house).
The original plan, when we decided to take this trip, was to just sail down Interstate 5 the whole way to Portland and be there in four hours. That didn’t happen, as four hours turned into ten hours. We decided, on the fly, to take the scenic route and come down the 101. This required us to drive out to the 101 and then back to the 5 in Portland. It was a beautiful day to do so: the sun was shinning and the forests areas were bright green!
The most exciting part of the day was driving into Astoria, Oregon. It’s such a magnificent little town with a cool culture and rich history. The scenery and environment is very English seaboard picturesque.
While in Astoria we ate at Rogue Ales Public House, located on the Columbia River (Yes! I said ON the river, literally! We had to drive over a wooden bridge at 5mph onto Pier 39. So cool!). At Rogue, we ordered two beers (Dead Guy and Mom’s ½ Weizen), pizza, a burger, and onion rings. So good!
After eating, we drove up to the Astoria Column with a brief visit to the house from Goonies. Yes, Johanna is a nerd too. The Astoria Column was amazing: from the construction to the artwork to the view it provides at the top, it was absolutely beautiful.
We then drove to Fort Clatsop but we did not make it there until 7:30pm, and the park closed at 6pm. We found a hiking trail that had not been closed (because it closed at dusk, but we did not realize it until we returned to the parking lot. Yeah, we thought we were adventurously dissenting…) and decided to see if we could walk to the Lew and Clark Fort. After a half-hour of walking on this trail, we decided to turn back. We never saw the fort. So bummed : - (
The rest of the time was spent getting to Portland taking highway 26 to the 405 and then the 5. It was a beautiful drive, and in the future we know that we want to drive down the 101 instead of coming inland. Oxford Suites at 10pm is where our day ended. We were so tired from the long day that we crashed pretty fast. BUT, we got a lot of great pictures of nature and saw lots of historical sites! All in all, it was a great day.
Love,
George and Johanna