Category: Oregon

We’re in Astoria still. We took Zavian to an elementary school that converts its gym to a play space on the weekends, complete with a fleet of old tricycles and scooters. Zavian ate it up. I used the bathroom, and I was surprised to see that there were no urinals for the kids. I distinctly remember urinals in my elementary school bathrooms because there was one kid who could pee into them from like ten feet away.

There are a couple landmarks out here with some depressing names: Dismal Nitch and Cape Disappointment. Apparently when Lewis, Clark, and Sacajawea arrived, they were trying to meet a ship with supplies before it departed. The awful Oregon weather forced them off the river and onto that nitch, preventing them from meeting the ship. The disappointment story is from another explorer who just missed the discovery of the mouth of the Columbia River because of an awful storm. I thought the stories might be connected by the explorer who discovered them, but it turns out they’re actually connected by how awful the weather can get out here. It rains twice as much as Portland, but we’ve actually had pretty mild days.

Here’s a rhyme from the computer:

transcontinental distribution of temple prostitution /
an experimental contribution to the dental institution

Monica, her parents, Zavian and I are in Astoria for the weekend. It’s really scenic out here, and the drive was a mild two hours. We climbed the 162 steps to the top of the Astoria column to launch our souvenir balsa wood planes. We ate dinner at a Rogue Pub on an old cannery pier. We walked through a bustling downtown with a still vibrant DVD super store. We drove over the Megler Bridge at midnight, across the massive Columbia River and then through a black vacancy until we reached what I understood to be the afterlife, where we pulled over and backtracked, returning to this living land with no memory of what transpired beyond. We bought some of Zavian’s granola bars at huge discount at the Safeway.

Good trip so far.