Sightseeing at Cape Disappointment

 As I mentioned in yesterday's post, our Thursday afternoon turned bright a sunny. We grabbed the opportunity to get out and do a little sight-seeing. Our first stop was this lookout above the state park. Looking to the north, we saw this:

A few of you have expressed curiosity about how Cape Disappointment got its name. The sign pictured below explains it.

 

If you're interested in reading about the quest to settle this part of the world, I can recommend two good books: Astoria, by Peter Stark, and The Men Who United the States, by Simon Winchester. Both are excellent. Just by coincidence, I read them sequentially, although I can't remember which I read first.

Looking to the south, we saw this:

From there, we drove to where the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center was located. Sadly, the museum is closed because of COVID, but it was still worth the trip. We saw some things we'd previously been unaware of. There was a short hike from the parking lot to the museum. Along the way, we read these two signs.

At the top of the hill, one could visit the museum in different times. I liked the quote from Jefferson on the side of the building.

Here, a sign explained what we could see from the ocean side of the building. (Remember that you can make the image larger by clicking on it.)

Looking north, we could see the north jetty:

Looking south, we could barely see the south jetty. I wrote some about this when we visited Fort Stevens this past summer. Also, we were as close to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse as we've ever been. It's possible to walk out there closer, but the trail was closed without explanation.

Here's another difficult-to-see image showing you what we're looking at.

And another closer view of the lighthouse. You can read more about it right here, and you can also learn of how treacherous it is to navigate these waters. 

As we turned to walk back, we were standing above Fort Canby. Looking down, we could see where one of the hidden cannons was once mounted to protect the coastline during World War II.

So, let's just take a little walk through Fort Canby, shall we? But first, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the many ways you could die out here today. Please watch your step.

Sorry about all the sun flares on the image below. I couldn't see them until I took the pictures off the camera, but here's Fort Canby. It's smaller than Fort Stevens on the Oregon side. We visited there a few years back. You can read more about it and compare the two right here.

Here are a few informational signs. Sorry to post so many pictures of signs here, but this stuff all interests me. If you're not up for reading signs, then please scroll on by. There's more below.

Here's a little information about Fort Canby. Remember that this area along the Oregon coast was the one place where the United States homeland was attacked during World War II. Also, there was concern about enemy ships navigating the Columbia River to reach farther inland.

In this next image, I'm standing inside Battery Harvey Allen looking out. On the right is where one of the cannons was mounted.

These next signs were inside the structure and they explain the layout of the place.

Here, I'm standing outside the entrance.

This next image shows the interior of the battery. The two subsequent images explain what you're seeing in the lettered sections.

Here, I'm standing outside the structure. The cannon was mounted on the center right structure.

Here are a few of the rooms inside. In this next image is the room identified above as the "guard room." The "office" was its mirror image. Both rooms had fireplaces.

This room is a storage room. Looking out, it looked like this.

To my left were these shelves.

I like seeing these images of the old uniforms and equipment. My father was a WWII vet, and it gives me some idea of his life long before I was born.

If I'd been alive, and we'd been stationed here, we would have lived like this.

There are other forts farther north in Washington, but these are the three in the local area. We have not yet visited Fort Columbia.

So once we'd seen our fill, we walked back to the truck and drove into Ilwaco in search of something for lunch. As we were leaving, a mother deer passed in front of us along with this young fawn.

We stopped off for some fish & chips. This little cafe known as the Loose Caboose was kind of a lucky find. With Washington restaurants shut-down for all but take-out food again, they brought menus to our truck, and then we called in our order. In a few minutes, the food was served up piping hot, and we drove back to the RV to eat it. Yum. There's nothing like fresh seafood when you're visiting the beach.

After lunch, I sat and stitched the binding for Friendship's Garden in one sitting. And that there's a finish. I started this quilt on March 9, 2018, while we were on our USA perimeter tour.

On our final morning at Cape Disappointment, I stitched down the binding on my challenge piece. You'll have to wait until February 1st to see it. Sorry.

Also, I stitched this far on Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. This section is 50 inches wide, so there's still a long way to go. Recall that the bottom portions of the stitchery will be completed when the blocks are sewn together.

The wind died down for our trip home, and so we crossed the tall scary bridge in Astoria. It's not so scary from the Washington side.

And that was our trip. It was well worth it, even though the weather didn't cooperate much. It was nice to get a change of scenery, and I have no complaints about spending most of the time stitching. It was very relaxing. 

The RV is unpacked now, and I can start getting back to normal, such as it is in these COVID times. I have some housework to do, and I need to make up a shopping list for our drastically scaled down Thanksgiving feast. I'll say more about that later.