Astoria Road Trip: Final Installment

Our trip back was actually filled with strange adventure. And nothing starts a trip like that better than a healthy meal!


Midway, we were attached by gnomes of unusually large size...



but luckily the Navy came to our defense.


Jer-bear's stepmom recently got Mac-ified, so we had a bit of a geek fest while the PC boys were sulking by the shed.


And then, despite having visited several times, we forgot how to get back home! Thank goodness Larry could help us by reading grandpa's charts we'd brought back.


Then we overstayed our welcome and Larry started burning our belongings, so we figured we'd better leave.
We were so tired, our faces were permanently blurred. And for some reason, my head swelled to a freakishly large size.


Not only did Canada welcome us back with open arms, she welcomed every item in our truck personally. After 20 hours, we arrived back home at 1 a.m. Whew!

raffle, boating, Bayliner

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:





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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

Richard Dreyfuss, how do you do it?

Solitaire is a great game. A great, great game. And there’s lot of versions of it. My dad played it a lot and taught me a really hard version which I’m so-so at. My first FAMOUS encounter with it was in the movie Jaws, when Richard Dreyfuss is playing the cascading card style of regular solitaire on a boat. On a boat!! It’s the perfect game for being on a boat when you’ve proved for the twelfth time you can’t tie that knot and you know the next offer to try again is going to get you thrown off (ahem, me and not Richard Dreyfuss. His knot-tying skills were really good in that movie, as I recall.) Oh, and another thing. In the movie the shark DOESN’T EAT Richard Dreyfuss. So there you go about the powers of solitaire.

When it’s a rainy weekend and there’s nothing good on TV and who cares about chores because we’re just going to sleep in the bed again tonight so why make it, and the kids are coming over on Monday and dammit THEY can clean the sink full of dishes for once… it’s nice to crack open the laptop and zip off a quick game of solitaire.

Except it’s never a quick game.

In fact it’s usually at least 8 games, and God forbid you lose 7 and win the 8th, because now you’re into it for at least another 11 games.

I don’t know about you, but my win to loss ratio is low, low, low. Low in-the-toilet low. I think I win 1 in 20 games or something like that. And do you ever notice, after you’ve lost like 5 games or so, the game seems to take pity on you and deals you out three aces, and gives you a great black and red mix so you’re moving cards all over and FEEL like, holy crap! I think I’m gonna win this one! And the paranoid part of your mind starts screaming “Don’t think that! Don’t think that! The game will know and you’ll lose!”

And then BLAM! You’re staring at a red 8 that you could’ve moved to that black 7, but somehow, despite having bionic eyes, you totally missed it. And after you finally move the red 8, the red jack underneath is turned over and you can’t get to the black ten in the card pile any more cuz it’s buried, and every time you go through the deck you think “maybe this time” but forget it because the red 9 that’s sitting on the LAST FACE DOWN CARD THAT’S SITTING ON THE GODDAMN 2 OF CLUBS YOU NEED TO WIN is saying “Dude, we like so gave you all those aces and you STILL lost?!?”

I hate solitaire.

raffle, boating, Bayliner

Mom Had a Part In It Too: Jer-Bear Guest Post

"When I was 12, Pa brought home an 8ft skiff he found floating in the waters in Alaska. My brother, Pa, and I had a few trout trips in that boat. I don't remember catching much but we had a good time. Then somewhere a 4hp Johnson motor turned up. Woo Hoo!!! Pa bolted it on the boat and turned us loose in the Puget sound!! Then he was off for another trip to Alaska.

Now Mom was in charge of hauling us and the boat to the water. I will tell you right now that we had the cleanest house and yard in Suquamish! HA HA HA HA!! If the chores weren't done, the little boat was stuck in drydock! Miller Bay was our fishin' hole but there weren't many fish in it. But it was all about being out on the water!

Thanks Mom for haulin' us around! Sometimes twice a day!"

by Jer-Bear

Early Boating Memories: Jer-Bear Guest Post

"I was 3 or 4 when i drove a boat for the first time. It was my dad's boat, The Norsky. He was fishing at Point No Point after work and decided to take me with. The one thing I remember is him taking the wheel and saying "Watch out for the rocks" Oops, sorry Pa!!

As I got older, I started going after much bigger boats. Grandpa Ed had an old Tollycraft. I think it was about 25 or 28ft. It was a beautiful boat and Grandpa Ed and Grandpa Al both took care of it very well. Every time we would go to Astoria to visit, we could always count on a Sturgeon trip! Sometimes the fishing was slow and it was easier to catch bait in the bait bucket! One slow day when I was 8, Grandpa Al taught me to tie my first knot, a Bowline. I have never forgotten that day nor the knot.

The older I got, the more I was taught. My favorite lessons were the driving lessons. There is nothing like driving a boat. The sound and sight of water spraying out from the sides of the boat. Not to mention the look and sound of the water at the stern while you are cruising. Indescribable.

Then Grandpa Ed got the Top Gun! Now there was a boat! Another Tolly, but this time 36' with twin 502 cubic inch, fuel injected engines. Lots and lots of good times and unforgettable memories on the Top Gun. Fishing with both Grandfathers and my Pa, all in the same trip. The perfect guys fishing trip. Learning to pilot the boat into the boathouse. What a tight squeeze, but I did it twice and without damage! And who can forget the annual prepping of the Top Gun for the Regatta and winning first place? Truly memories that will never be forgotten.

Grandpa Al, Grandpa Ed, may you rest in peace. And Pa, many more good times to come!"

by Jer-Bear

The catalyst

I think Jer-Bear's passion for this boat has roots in his youth. He went boating an awful lot with his grandpa Ed. I got to meet grandpa Ed for the first time Christmas of 2007. Up til then, I'd only seen him on Jer-Bear's screensaver - both of them laughing and flipping off the photographer! I love that photo.

Shortly after the holidays, grandpa Ed became very sick. Cancer, among other health issues. Jer-Bear took this very hard. He'd told me, in his own way over a few different conversations, that his grandpa Ed was one of the most important and influential people in his life. Many of Jer-Bear's grandpa Ed stories involved boating and fishing. They did that a lot together.

Grandpa Ed finally passed almost three weeks ago. Two weeks ago, heading back from the funeral in Oregon, we stopped at a boat center and had a look around. The Bayliner 300 hooked us from the second we stepped onto her. It has been the catalyst for Jer-Bear's new look on life.

Everyone should have a catalyst that moves them onto a better path (if they need it). Don't you think?