Astoria!

I had a lucky streak this summer and won a hotel stay at the coast. Upon picking up my gift certificate, I realized I had won a substantial prize, there was no way Corey and I would use it up. So this last weekend we took another couple to Astoria. Our friend is a fairly new Oregon resident (transplant from the East Coast) and hadn’t yet made it to Astoria. Actually, I’ve lived in Oregon my whole life and never really gave Astoria much attention before either.

In Summary: Sleeping old fishing town that is great for lazy weekends. Unlike some of the other coastal towns in Oregon, Astoria has not one, not two, but 3 awesome breweries and no outlet malls and super nice locals. My favorite beer was the Volksweisen at Wet Dog. We explored everything there was to explore-we even went up to Long Beach, WA to show them Jake the Alligator Man-it was Halloween weekend after all.

Unexpected happenings: Bob Marley cover band Ma Barley played at the Ft. George Brewery, a sweet little gallery called Lunar Boy, and a torrential down pour while we were on the beach. We were drenched.
One bit of advice: if you are scare of heights, the Astoria Column is probably not for you. It scared the beejeezees out of me. Looking up or down while on the stairs = not cool. I shook like a little leaf. I totally thought I would be fine since it was just a spiral staircase, but not so much.  Here's the view from the top; it makes it all worth it.