Trip Day 9 - Astoria Oregon and Cannon Beach

Day 9 finds us in Astoria, Oregon, the land of superbly long bridges that seem to stretch on forever.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

It was on this day, for the first time in the trip really that I managed to pry myself out of bed relatively early and go walking to see what was to be seen. Sadly I didn’t catch the sunrise (it would have been magnificent) but I did find the world quietly waking up and quietly at its work.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

In these posts I tend to end up focusing on pictures of “things”: bridges, birds, people, but there are many times that I take a picture that doesn’t really have a noun tied to it. Something that just evokes a thought that’s difficult to enunciate to anyone else. During my morning walk I found this building with these little ‘no trespassing’ stencils on it in several places. It made me wonder what exactly it was that was being protected. Have they had problems with looters? What is the secret? The colors, vomit pink and diarrhea brown are fairly worthy of note too.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

The layout of the city is a bit ominous. Most of the downtown is a hundred feet lower in elevation than the further outskirts, making one realize that at some point in history the shoreline was probably UP THERE. But man as always scrambles ever closer to the water heedless of the fact that some day he may wake up with a fish as a neighbor.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

*sigh* Had I been here an hour earlier the sun would have come up right behind these behemoths.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

One of my fave splashes of color from the trip was this bit of greenery growing about 10 feet in the air along someone’s stairwell. Nature, give her ever so tiny a purchase will find a way to invade every nook and cranny.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

These patient pupils await the refuse of these fisherfolk.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

This gentleman was, I think, sketching the bridge. I like the perspective and almost mirage quality of the ship in the background.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

It’s unclear what these ships are actually doing. Hauling freight of some sort, one assumes? Regardless they’re rather amazing works of engineering.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

Finally having had enough of the lowlands we moved on to see Astoria Column. We almost ignored the thing entirely but in typical random fashion saw it on the map and decided it was worth a visit. As it turns out it’s where all the OTHER tourists were as well.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

Given the view it’s not surprising in retrospect.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

Vertigo anyone?

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

Certainly saw a lot of these during the trip.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

Moving on from the column we went back to the beach for a bit of sandiness.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

It has perpetually amusing to me how everyone goes to landmarks and proceeds to take the same photo. These two strangers are taking photo type #1 at the beach.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

Haystack rock. I have to admit that after having seen so much else on this trip that this particular rock, so acclaimed, was rather an anti-climax.

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

It was much more amusing to do some silhouettes against the shiny and briny sea.

The photographer:

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

The seekers:

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

The adventurers:

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

The onlookers:

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

The gymnast:

From 7-7-2012 Day 9 – Astoria, Oregon – Cannon Beach

And so ended the day in photos. Tomorrow we wrap up the trip on Mt. Hood.