An afternoon in Oregon

On Friday our only commitment was a business development lunch with a guy from Northrop Grumman in Portland. He suggested a place called Henry’s 12th Street Tavern in the Pearl District. With over 100 fine beers on tap I was quite pleased with the choice. They had a ring of ice going around the bar to keep your beer cold. I had a Russian River Blind Pig IPA. I had this last Friday at the Lupulin Reunulin tasting for the first time and this one didn’t have that fresh hop taste I remembered. I could tried a few but being a business lunch we kept it at one. After lunch Robie and I headed west to the coast. I sorta wanted to head east, see Multnomah Falls, the Columbia River Gorge, drive past Mt Hood again, and stop by Full Sail Brewery in Hood River.

It was a nice drive out to Seaside, OR. We did see a lot of clear cuts although none on Forest Service land. I navigated with GPS and Google Maps on my phone. We stopped by Fort Clatsop National Memorial and learned more about Lewis and Clark. This is the point where they found the Pacific Ocean. Robie and I have seen some L&C history while driving around Montana. We walk a very short loop in the park and saw huge trees and a bunch blown over. We saw a ton of trees blown over on the drive and we forgot to ask the Rangers at the visitor center how that happened. Huge root systems were standing straight up all over the place. 

We drove in to Astoria on the huge Columbia River. A friend from work told me that it is difficult to sail in to the river from the ocean at times because of the strong current. Robie remembered that the Goonies was set in Astoria and the house was in some neighborhood here. The town isn’t all that big and the neighborhoods on the hill looked like they fit what I remembered from the movie. I did a quick Google search on my phone and the address came right up. It was only a block or two out of our way. In the five minutes we were there to snap pics two other cars stopped. They must have people coming by constantly because of a movie from 1985. 

Goonies pics

We drove along the river back to Portland. It was a long drive from McKenzie Bridge to Portland to the coast and back to Portland. We got some drizzle but it turned out to be a decent day. Back in Portland we passed all kinds of seedy strip joints on our way to the hotel by the airport. The Embassy Suites there is quite nice. I was happy to check in to first class on both of my connections back to DC that night. And the two beautiful 6’ tall African American flight attendants didn’t hurt.