A Walking (yawn) Tour of Astoria

WARNING: If Victorian houses bore you, you will find this post SERIOUSLY tedious.

On Saturday, we awoke feeling severely-not-up-to-climbing-the-hill to the Astoria Column, which had been MY plan of the day.
So we had to resort to Plan #2 (Jeff's) to do the walking tour of historic Astoria.
There were, get this, 67 historic sites in the pamphlet.
All of which Jeff wanted to see.
Really.
That's a lot of walking and READING ALOUD FROM THE PAMPHLET.


Astoria is VERY HILLY.
In case you didn't know.
So off we went.
I have to admit that I was gradually won over.
How can you not love this....


...or this?


Most of these houses are 150 years old or more. They have been lovingly restored and DO NOT have double-glazed windows. Beautiful they might be, but you couldn't pay me to live there in Astoria's chilly winters.
The early pioneers of Astoria were a hardy bunch, building houses and rebuilding after fires and floods, and sometimes inexplicably moving houses just because they wanted to. I mean, actually MOVING the houses. How did they move houses this big, sometimes several blocks, in the beginning of the 20th century?

These two houses used to be one and were physically split in two by one of the owners. The one on the left holding up quite well. Not so the house on the right, which is dilapidated.


How would you like to have to climb all these stairs at the end of your day?


This one, just because I like it.


I like this solution to sharing the road.
Apparently, when cars came into vogue, the carriage drivers kicked up a fuss at having them on the road. So the city built a brick section down the middle of each road for the horses. The cars went left and right. Some sections are still visible.


Yes, we saw ALL 67 buildings.
And read every description in the pamphlet.
Yawn.

A Perfect Bowl

One of my perennial quests is the search for the perfect bowl of clam chowder. It has to be New England style, no tomatoes in MY clam chowder, thank you very much. This search can take the form of a restaurant visit or a pot of my own making.
I have fond memories of a bowl at the Riverhouse in Bend, silky smooth and lightly flavoured with sweet red bell peppers.
The Sea Hag in Depot Bay does a fine chowder, as does any Doogers on the Northwest coast.
I even had a bowl in New England itself once, in Boston, but it wasn't any better than any I have eaten on the West Coast.

This bowl was very delicious, almost smoky-tasting, and full of tender fresh clams.


We found it at the Silver Salmon, in Astoria, where we landed on Friday afternoon.
After a slightly slow drive through the woods and mountains with a gazillion other Independence Day revelers.
To our favourite bed-and-breakfast, The Rosebriar.
Which is showing its age, being a historic house and, I suspect, a little neglected of late. Our room smelled of sweaty socks, so I "borrowed" a candle from the lobby and we ran a fan most of the time. The first time we stayed there, about 20 years ago, the landlady assured us that they prided themselves on their immaculate cleanliness. She was right, it was the cleanest place I have ever stayed, before or since. About 10 years ago, we visited again, and it was, sadly, shabbier.

However, they do provide a breakfast to die for.
Fresh fruit and banana pancakes the first day.
Fruit again and strawberry french toast the second.

This is our last stay at the Rosebriar, as it has been bought by a big company for a rehab house of sorts.
Sniff.


More to come.

Summer Holiday

Have I mentioned that Jeff and I are going to the beach for the long weekend? Slightly excited, I am. When I was a kid, summer holidays were a big deal. The English didn't travel much back then. I went to school with children who had never ventured out of their county, let alone been to the seaside. I think our family went every year. My Dad was an adventurous one. THE SONG to sing as we wended our way very slowly along the English roads and motorways was "Summer Holiday," by Cliff Richards. Those of you who are not English probably have NO IDEA who Cliff is. But let me tell you, in England he is a big deal. Still performing today, he is the only artist, other than Elvis, to have a song on the UK singles hit chart in all of its decades, from the 1950's till now. Plus, he's cute. Still is, if you ask me. And I know cute! 

Wedding

I've been hearing grumbles of discontent.
"Where are the wedding photos?"
I don't know.
My plan was to take lots of photos, but somehow the day got away from me. Here are some that I stole from Jenny, who posted them on our family website.

Edwin, bravely carrying the bottom layer of wedding cake on his lap. Our church is closed for renovations so we had to drive for 30 minutes to Wilsonville.


The girls.


Tommy the ringbearer posing in front of finished cake.
Rather gorgeous, if I do say so myself.
Which one, you ask?
Why, both of them!


Daniel and Josh, looking handsome and slightly rumpled.


I believe this was the removing of the garter, although I seem to have missed the moment.


Jon and yours truly, horning in on the Father-Daughter dance.


I will post some of the professional photos when we get them.
As for me, I've eaten way too much wedding cake this week.
I feel sick.
And tired.
Chocolate cake with a dark ganache filling and whipped cream frosting.
YUM.
Buttermilk cake with raspberry filling.
Mmmm-m.

Jeff and I are off to the beach for the weekend on Friday morning.
I may sleep the whole time.

Thrasonical Thursday

Go look that one up, I dare ya!

Harvested and eaten in a tidy stew: kohlrabi, baby parsnips, yellow and white carrots. Josh stood by the sink as I washed the produce and sampled mightily. He loved the kohlrabi and carrots, but pronounced the parsnips to be "spicy." Astute for a two-year-old, I thought.

Edwin is here.
Charlie is here.
Bethany and the kids seem to have moved in.
Full house again.
See you A.W.

After Wedding.

The reason I grow strawberries

Hal'cy'on: calm, tranquil, peaceful.


The halcyon days of summer are here.

Taciturn Tuesday

You've heard of Wordless Wednesday.
Well.....

Mum is gone.


Vegetable garden is rampant.



Oven is broke.