Dad and family would go to Long Beach and stay in some cottages, owned and rented out by a family friend named Warren Yeoman. They were called the Kozy Kottage Kabins (could also be a different name, but Kozy was part of the name). Dad, his Mom and Dad and sister would go clamming on the sandy beach for which the area is renowned. Then they would clean the clams and make chowder. We found the cabins where they stayed. They were pretty cheap accomodations sixty years ago so you can imagine what they are like now.
Front views
And back view
Yep - definitely scrapers now.
An interesting anecdote - After Dad and I were married but before joining the church (we were investigatos, though), we went to Long Beach either in April or October with his mom and dad. We know the month because the tv was turned on and General Conference was being teleivised. Dad's dad said, "Now, if I were ever to join a church, I'd join that one because they do what they say!" That was kinda wierd - Dad and I gave each other a knowing look.
I would go to Long Beach with my family whenever we came to Oregon during summer vacation. My Aunt Edythe and Uncle Wes were there, and my Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Bob and cousin Edward, and my mom and dad and brother Jan. I don't remember the house at all but we cleaned the clams in the back yard. I have two memories of staying there. There were single beds for the kids that had metal frames - the head and foot boards were each a single piece of metal pipe rounded at each end. One summer we were playing on the beds (probably horsing around). Lying on the bed I would lift my legs up clear over my head and balance on my elbows and then flop my legs down. One time my feet came crashing down on the pipe at the end of the bed and my heels smashed mightly on the pipe. I never went to the doctor but I'm sure I fractured my heels. I limped for a long time and had a nasty burning sensation in my heels whenever I stood up. Another silly memory was also with beds. I would push the beds kinda close together and suspend myself between them - a leg and an arm on one bed and the other leg and arm on the second bed. Then I would dangle there - yeah kinda dumb. One of my aunts asked me what I was, and I answered that I was a crippled potaskin. Apparently that was hilarious to the adults becasue they ribbed me for years, to my great embarrassment, about being a Crippled Potaskin. Actually, I'm pretty sure I meant to say I was a crippled protestant. Yeah - still dumb. But I think I knew I was a protestant because my mother really didn't like Catholics and Elizabeth and Bob and Edward were Catholics. Pretty random memories of Long Beach.
The place where I stayed was just two blocks away from Dad's Kozy Kottage. My house has been scraped and there is now an empty lot.
As we drove into town Dad asked me if I remembered the frying pan. I paused a minute, pulled up long ago memories and visualized this -
It was still there, but it is no longer metal but paper mache. Dad says that sometimes the pan would be put over a big fire and clams would be fried.
So---the friyng pan was in the yard right next to Marsh's Museum, which is still there in all it's glory!
Oh my gosh!! Marsh's Museum was a child's heaven! We would go in there and spend hours lookng and playing. It is just the same now! Imagine the best collection of beach junk possible and add in sexy signs, and old time pictures and statues and salt water taffy. Imagine the penultimate beach curio shop, and this is it.
The two headed calf was still there and so was the half man/half alligator petrified creature along with all sorts of other freakish things.
Dad loved the automated musical instruments and was stuffng in dimes and quarters with great excitment
And my favorite (and still is) was the baseball game. I was so good at it!
Well, we finally had to leave as the proprietor started giving us wierd looks, probably thinking, "look at those wierdos who are trying to relive their childhood.
We left and walked along the street and Dad saw "his" bakery
And we went and parked on the beach sand, ate lunch, and took a looooong walk...till I said, "ok let's go".
So much for fond memories.
We left Portland, drove north to Astoria, ate lunch at a Safeway Deli, crossed over the Columbia River on the Astoria Bridge, and accidently found a section of the Lewis and Clark National Park called the "Dismal Nitch".
Dismal Nitch is the name of a cove along the lower Columbia River in Washington State, where in November 1805 (do the math.....210 years ago almost to the day!) Lewis and Clark and their men were forced by a severe winter storm to take shelter in the cove. They were stranded there for six days. Clark, in his journal, said it was a dismal place. It is part of the L & C Natl Park which also includes an area at Cape Dissapointment and Fort Clapsop.
It is also a rest area along state route 401 just east of the bridge....not very exciting but it was a great place to park the camper for two nights. "No tents, no camping. Please limit your stay to eight hours".
In the morning we woke up to a great view of the mighty Columbia
Here I am pretending to be either Lewis or Clark (can't decide who to be) pointng the way to go
We found the actual cove where they huddled in the rain. We know it was the real place because there was a a little park (no camping, no fishing) with a gravel path and an elaborate monument with a metal bas relief of the company suffering on the beach. It was really neat to walk in the actual place where those guys had camped,
No trip over the Astoria Bridge would be complete wthout photos of it - think of approaching a roller coaster at California Adventures
We went to Cape Dissappointment to visit the Visitors Center of the L & C Natl Park
but it was Tuesday. Closed on Tuesday - go figure. So we went on a hike.
Dead Man's Cove
Well - there is beach access. You just have to go down a steep hillside.
And then up the hill to the lighthouse.
We decided to drive as far north on the penninsla as we could. On the way we came to the Long Beach Cranberry Experimental Station. I bet you didn't know that cranberries have been an important crop in the area for years.
Cool museum telling you everything you need to know about the history and cultivation of cranberries.
And fields of cranberries testing new varieties and techniques
Heading further north we came to
which is basically a game refuge for Snowy Plovers which come to this cove in April and May by the thousands to feast upon beach yummies. No Plovers in sight now.
Our final activity was going to the Columbia River Maritime Museum which was really great. Great displays about the Coast Guard - I even want to join up and become a Rescue Swimmer or a Coxswain of a Life Boat (Dad wants to be a Pilot for ships going over the bar, a cake job that earns big bucks) - and everything else imagineable that may have something to do with the mouth of the Columbia River.
We ended up taking a tour of the Columbia, a lighthouse ship. What an awful boring job. The ship would be anchored permanently five miles out to sea with the mission to warn ships about the dangerous passage ahead. It was decommissioned in 1979 and replaced by a "robot" buoy.
Summer - 42 days on and 28 days off. Winter - 21 days on and 14 days off. No computers to surf the internet. No net flix. Just books and bingo. Shoot me now.
And then back to Portland.
Yeah, they always say that living at a lighthouse was depressing. But living on a lighthouse boat...that sounds terrible.
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