Astoria Road Trip: Part 6

These kinds of things are never actually fun. All your life, you grow up with these things surrounding you, and then at some point you have to come back and weed out which memories you'll keep and which ones have to go. And because it is so different and so personal for everyone, you have to check and double-check things as simple as keys or books.


Check out the beautiful wooden coffered (I think that's the right term) ceiling, and natural hardwood floors.


James Dean was alway spouting off. See him on the left, instigating things while they're trying to roll up the carpet? In the end we had to throw him in the truck to get him to shut up. Now he's instigating in our garage.


It was tough for Jo. There were piles called "good will", "almost good will" and "probably too good for good will." And of course, far too many decisions.


Jer-Bear had never spent so much time in his grandpa's room with his grandpa's belongings before.


And after this, time to hit the road.

raffle, boating, Bayliner

Astoria Road Trip: Part 5

Visiting Jer-Bear's grandma and grandpa's house really was like walking through the past. Check out these vintage items you just don't see anymore:





raffle, boating, Bayliner

Astoria Road Trip: Part 4

Sometimes you see things that really appeal to your aesthetic. These shots were like that:








raffle, boating, Bayliner

Astoria Road Trip: Part 3

Our trip even brought us within spitting distance of an Olympic Boat Center. Okay, I guess you'd have to be a world champion spitter... however, I did get this amazing shot off at 70 miles an hour.


Imagine how fast WE will look when we are in our Bayliner 300 and others are trying to take OUR picture!

Astoria has some famous stuff going on. Like, it was the setting for The Goonies. And... well, I guess that's all I know about. However, James Dean was at the house when we got there. Pretty hot, eh? Of course we took him home with us.


And there were some very scary things in Grandpa's house, like this torture instrument from long ago. If you don't think school was torture in the olden days (I've heard the "Torture Story" from both my dad and my former dad-in-law, neither of whom are liars or exagerators) so it must be true. Plus, just look at this desk, right?



raffle, boating, Bayliner

Astoria Road Trip: Part 2

The I-5 is very bumpy. It is a real challenge for professional photographers.

Turns out the Jer-Bear does not like bright flashes early in the morning.


See how unblurry the Space Needle is? You'd never know we were going full out on the highway. Of course, there were about 8 bad ones before this.

Mt. Ranier is beautiful. And man, is this car ride was boring. We ran out of conversation about 2.5 hours ago.

We had about two hours of good radio, and then we were incommunicado in the wilds of the southwestern Washington forest. Travel time to Astoria would end up being 5.5 hours.

raffle, boating, Bayliner

Astoria Road Trip: Part 1

OMG, you know it will be a long day when it starts like this:


And while Jer-Bear's Grandpa Ed didn't have a Bayliner, he left Jer-Bear some great boat-related items after he passed away in July. And this was our trip down to Astoria to pick them up.

The first hurdle is always National Security. Which looks like this at 4:30 a.m.


And for some reason, I just wanted to add a picture of Niko's wagging butt.


It's wagging so fast it's ALMOST INVISIBLE.

raffle, boating, Bayliner