It’s just a day’s drive from Boise, but this river town – celebrating its 200th birthday this year – is a whole different world.
1. ‘The Goonies’
Kids of all ages love this 1985 adventure. Much of it was shot in Astoria — including the iconic porched-in house where the kids lived. It’s still a family’s home (but “Goonies are welcome” in the neighborhood, the signs say).
2. Great beer
Along with a pub run by Western Oregon’s Rogue Brewery and the Astoria Brewing Co., you can find the Fort George Brewery and Public House, which keeps several house-brewed beers on tap — and the Vortex IPA (hoppy and wonderfully bitter) in cans to bring home. The place has a great crowd most nights, and a full menu to boot.
3. ‘The Bar’
The spot where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean is so turbulent — and often stormy — that the first British captain who sailed by never even realized there was a mouth of a river here (fortunately for us — the American who came by a few years later claimed it). The complex tides and the weather contribute to more than 300 Coast Guard rescues a year. Specially trained “Bar Pilots” have to climb onto the giant freighters that sail through on their way to the ports of Portland and Vancouver, Wash., and captain them through the river mouth.
You can drive out to the edge of the jetty on the Oregon side — about 10 or 15 minutes from downtown Astoria — and walk right out there (though the Army Corps of Engineers strongly urges folks to enjoy the view from the observation tower — it's much safer).
4. The Columbia River Maritime Museum
This compact but well-designed museum is how I knew all that stuff about the Bar, and you can learn much more.
Current exhibits include an exploration of sailor tattoos, a cool look at soldier graffiti on the military transport ships to the Vietnam War and a life-size diorama of a Coast Guard rescue featuring a real self-righting rescue boat with a great history of its own.
It was a prototype used in the field for many years, then retired to Newport for training. There, it was smashed into and crammed beneath a boat house by a wayward ship — a sad end to a storied boat. But when workers finally recovered it, the boat righted and bailed itself and bobbed there in the water, ready to go.
The museum is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except for Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day, when it is closed.
5. The architecture
Astoria is one of the oldest towns in the West, and it has the cool, old buildings and beautiful Victorian homes to prove it. The Flavel House, once owned by an early boat captain, is now a museum. The Elliot and Commodore hotels are in restored old buildings downtown. For one of the coolest glimpses of the past, go to Vintage Hardware on the corner of 14th and Duane streets. The used furnishings and hardware store is in the partially restored Astor Hotel, and you can wander through the hotel’s once-grand foyer with its vaulted ceilings, second-floor balconies and elaborate plaster work.
6. The river front
Idaho is so tied to the Columbia River basin, through salmon runs and the Port of Lewiston and more, that visiting this stretch of the river seems almost like a pilgrimage.
A walk alongside Astoria’s historic docks features a series of signs that walk you through the importance of this town, which once was built almost exclusively on pylons and docks. Here, you can learn about the rise and fall of the canning industry, the fire that moved much of town farther ashore and much, much more.
7. Perhaps the greatest dive bar in the West
At Mary Todd’s Workers’ Bar, locals rule. But they’ll warm up to you if you order one of the place’s regionally famous prime rib dinners and wash it down with a couple of “fresh squeezed yuccas” — vodka, simple syrup, juice of a lemon and ice in a mason jar you’re supposed to shake until the whole thing is a frothy, frosty delight.
8. The fish
You are, after all, right next to the ocean. And lots of local restaurants feature the Willapa Bay shrimp and oysters from the region. But if you want to bring something home, stop at Josephson’s Smokehouse with a cooler and fill it full of salmon, sturgeon and anything else they happen to have. For a few days at least, your snacks, salads and pastas will remind you of the coast — and that’s like a vacation in itself.
9. The weather
Astoria, which gets an average of nearly 70 inches of rain each year, makes the rest of Oregon seem like the Sahara. So why would you want to go there? Ask yourself that after our third week of 100-plus temperatures this summer ...
10. The meal stop(s) in Portland
You’re looking at an 8- to 9-hour drive, but most of it runs along the beautiful Columbia River gorge. You end up having to skirt Portland, but if you love food, don’t just drive by — the city is celebrated around the world for its obsession with excellent food.
Into Thai? Try Pok Pok. French? Little Bird. Fried breakfast treats? Voodoo Doughnut. Just an all-around spectacular experience? Beast (make a reservation). That’s barely scratching the surface.
