Astoria, Oregon

Astoria is the home of Fort Clatsop, where Lewis and Clark spent November 1805 through March 1806, and the last stop on our Lewis and Clark tour! (You can give that last statement any emotion you wish!) They built the fort in an attempt to stay warm and dry through the winter months. A group of volunteers help the rangers by giving demonstrations and talks about the history of the expedition and we listened to a gentleman this morning that did a really good job.

Astoria and it's neighbor town, Seaside, are bustling with runners and their supporters this week-end because of the annual Hood River to Seaside Relay Race - about 200 miles. It consists of 1,200 teams of 12 and takes 4,000 volunteers to organize/direct it! We talked to a man at breakfast whose wife was running 3 different "legs" for her team - she started at 3 am on Thursday morning at the Timberline Lodge where we had lunch the other day - and ran 6 miles. He said the length of each run depends on the terrain and the runner. Participants have been running, walking, limping, by the RV park all day. There are many cars and vans with slogans - one said - "Don't Get Too Close - We've Got The Runs!" and another had a wooden caricature of a slug on the top of the car and a sign - "The Slugs are Slow but Steady."

We rode our bikes along the waterfront, (it's windy here like Brownsville) had lunch at a local brewery on the river, and saw the sea lions near one of the piers. They are huge animals and a noisy bunch - all pushing and shoving for a spot in the sun! I sent a video of them to Samantha and Emily.