Kelly and I spent this past weekend in Astoria, Oregon. Our aunt recently bought a vacation home there and let us stay a few nights. The weather was absolutely fantastic (I have the sunburn to prove it too).
We arrived in the evening on Friday, had enough daylight to pick up groceries, unpack, and start walking into town for dinner. We quickly discovered that things shut down pretty early in town and there’s nowhere to get a meal past about 10pm. So we sat at a local brewpub called Wet Dog Cafe (part of Astoria Brewing) and had chips and salsa and tried a couple of their brews. The only really bad part was that the place had what they called ‘club night’, so it cost us $3 to get in and hear really terrible music from a cd changer. Oh well.
Saturday we drove to Fort Stevens State Park where my parents happened to be camping the same weekend, so we visited with them for a while before heading to the Buoy 10 Brewfest in Hammond, which was a pretty fun time. There weren’t too many different beers there (32 total, most of which I’d had) but there were a few really excellent ones that I’d never had before such as Pike’s Naughty Nelly’s Ale and Racoon Lodge’s Ring Tail Pale Ale. And both the weather and view were great, there was a tent and outdoor area with a great view of the Columbia River (and Astoria in the distance).
That evening Kelly and I had a very nice meal at Baked Alaska, which sits on the pier. Kelly and I sat outside on the deck and watched a magnificant sunset (seen in the photo above) and shared three crab dishes; crab cakes, dungeness crab fettucini, and Alaskan king crab legs with butter. Yum!
On Sunday we walked back down to town for the craft fair before driving up to (and then climbing the 164 steps) of the Astor Column. The photo to the left, taken from the top of the column, is of Astoria, showing the mouth of the Columbia River looking out towards the Pacific Ocean, and Washington (the dark land mass you see to the upper right). Another spectacular day, and a great weekend.
6 replies on “Weekend at Astoria”
You hit a brew fest?! Damn it, missed another one! 🙂 You know the Portland International Beer fest is this weekend, right?
Gotta get out to Astoria one of these days.
How were the beers at Wet Dog?
Man, you just missed an edit or five I made to the post (adding links, copy edits, etc, hehe). Anyway, the beerfest at the coast wasn’t too big a deal. Though I did like the fact you didn’t have to wait in a really long line to taste more beers (unlike the long lines you suffer at the PDX ones).
Their Amber wasn’t bad, they were out of their stout (doh!) and we weren’t there too long to try much else. Kelly had their strawberry blonde at the brewfest and really liked it.
Regarding the PDX Int’l Brewfest, no, I didn’t know that but I’m so there. At least I hope I am. Hell, I have this sinking feeling my weekend is booked up, but I will find out and get back to you. 🙂
My Sunday is booked up at the mountain. And I think our Saturday has been booked for us by our better halves. At least the afternoon, anyway. 🙂 Maybe we could sneak off to the PIB whilst the girls do their thing…
Regarding Saturday afternoon, Kelly thinks that you and I could sneak off for a couple hours to the brewfest, and I think that’s a fine plan. Meet at Amnesia Brewing and have a beer and perhaps a bratwurst, walk around for a few minute and then subtly slip off and rush into NW to drink them international beers. 🙂
I have a comment about Saturday. Kelly and I and I’m not sure who else are meeting at the Mississippi St. Fair that day and then heading over to Tyson’s b-day around 7:30pm. I think you guys ( Mike and Becky) should join us.
Miranda
Miranda: yeah, that’s what Mike and I are referring to for Saturday. Kelly mentioned meeting at Amnesia before venturing through the rest of the fair. Mike and I *might* take off for a little bit into NW to check out the international brewfest but will return to the street fair before heading over to Tyson’s.
Mike: you’re welcome to come along to Tyson’s house after the street fair, he doesn’t live very far from where Kelly and I do.