We pushed north on the Salmon Superhighway to Oregon’s most northwestern coastal city, Astoria, bounded to the north by the mighty Columbia River.  I had only been to Astoria one time before, and my memories of the city are somewhat bittersweet.  I visited Astoria to clear my head on the night before I met with the CEO of Safilo (the Italian eyewear conglomerate that owns Smith Optics) in Portland in the spring of 2018, just after I gave my notice to leave the company.  Astoria is home to several great breweries, and I had all I could do to abstain from sampling some of their brews on the eve before the biggest meeting of my professional career.  And to say that I was focused and ready was an understatement…I actually had dinner at Fort George Brewery AND I did not have one single beer.  I spent the following morning punching Mr. Angelo CEO in the gut, and it felt really good, if not mean, as I said my peace and then promptly walked out of Safilo’s dysfunctional existence forever.  It was a very surreal time for me, and perhaps the highlight of my professional career, but it marked the end of a wonderful era with an unbelievable brand, Smith Optics.  Because, truth be told, I never really wanted to leave Smith.  So, fuck you, Safilo.  And hello once again, Astoria…but on MY terms this time around.

Tall Boy and Half Pint skidded into Fort Stevens State Park on the day before Thanksgiving, and we were surprised to find that the park was fairly full.  By the way, Tall Boy is the nickname we settled on for the van and Half Pint is the nickname for the trailer.  Anyway, we were able to snag a site for 4 nights so that we could take advantage of this great little city and all it has to offer (seafood, beer, sightseeing, fishing, and mushrooming…yes,  mushrooming, more on that below).

As I mentioned above, the beer in Astoria is quite good, most likely influenced by the Portland beer culture.  We were out for a ride early Thanksgiving afternoon and we were pleasantly surprised to find the Rogue Brewery open down on the wharf.  And when I say “down on the wharf”, the brewery is literally located right on the wharf.  We managed to have a couple holiday sociables at the brewery and we took a couple growlers to go.  I had forgotten how good the beer is at Rogue, and it tasted especially good that day.  We also had beer and pizza at the Fort George Brewery one night, and that was good too.  We did find a small sour brewery in town, Reach Break, and we stopped in for a couple tasty sours one evening.  Very good beer, and very authentic.  We also had a couple of pops at Buoy Brewing and Astoria Brewing.  Buoy is located right on the wharf as well, and is very worthy of a visit.  Astoria is noteworthy because it has the coolest urinal I have ever seen, and because I kicked Maryjo’s ass in Battleship (photo to prove it).  Thanks, again, Portland.  Your influences are significant.

The fishing in and around Astoria is a little bit challenging, only because one has to travel outside the city to find quality water.  This is not normally a problem for any devoted fisherpeep, but when one has a grumpy copilot who doesn’t fish, it’s an issue.  In any event, I was granted a few hours on a small creek that feeds the upper Columbia.  Very fishy looking, but probably too early for the winter run of steelhead.  I bet when creeks like this are holding fish, it must be pretty intense when one hooks a large, angry fish in such a small creek.  Anyway, it wasn’t my time, again, but I will be back someday.

Fort Stevens State Park is one of the nicest state parks we have ever visited.  It’s an enormous state park, and it has a great blend of trails, beaches, mushrooming, and history.  The state park is home to Fort Stevens, a former Army installation that existed during the Civil and the World Wars.  During WWII, the fort was used to protect the mine fields of the Columbia River.  It’s really a very cool place to visit and a very important part of our history.  Actually, a Japanese sub snuck into the mouth of the Columbia River back in 1942 and lobbed 9 shells inland.  It clearly caught the fort by surprise, so the government responded by giving the fort a significant upgrade, most of which can be seen to this day on a self-guided walking tour.  If you ever find yourself in Astoria, you should really take the time to go see this historical gem.

One morning, we attended a free mushroom seminar hosted by one of the park rangers.  We have been dabbling with the thought of harvesting mushrooms for consumption, but other than owning a book and a mushroom knife, we have no idea what we are doing.  And harvesting your own mushrooms when you don’t know what you’re doing is a very bad idea, because what you don’t know could literally kill you, or at the very least, make you very sick.  It was a great opportunity to learn from an expert (along with 40 mushroom dorks), and it couldn’t come at a more opportune time.  And because Fort Stevens allows mushroom harvesting inside the park boundaries, we even got to explore with the park ranger after the seminar to identify mushrooms in the field.  Yes, we are now officially mushroom dorks, too, and it feels great.

The weather wasn’t so great during our visit to Fort Stevens, but we made the best of it.  On Thanksgiving Day, we smoked a turkey breast on the Traeger under the trailer canopy and made mashed potatoes and sausage stuffing to go along with the bird.  MJ managed to dump most of the potatoes in the fire ring when she was trying to drain them.  I maintain it was alcohol-induced, but nobody got hurt and we didn’t have to work the next day, so we managed to laugh it all off.  It rained cats and dogs, but it was one of our most memorable Turkey Days to date.  I guess that’s what it’s all about in a nutshell, making memories, that is.  Here’s to making more.  Cheers.