Seattle to Fort Stevens SP, WA
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Overcast, clearing late pm, mid 60s
We’d had a wonderful visit with Margaret and Marcia but it was finally time to say, “Goodbye.” We drove south through the city, leaving the busy, Seattle/Tacoma area behind and entering rural areas, again.
We stopped to camp at Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon, on the long spit that extends out from the southern side of the mouth of the Columbia River.
After setting up the camper we checked out the beach areas. They were beautiful, with wide sandy beaches along both the ocean and the river. On the ocean side we took photos of the remains of the wreck of the Peter Iredale, a four-masted steel sailing barque that ran ashore in 1906. All that remains is a part of the bow structure.
We’d intended to return for sunset but, after a dinner of Moroccan chicken and steamed fresh green beans, we decided on reading and turning in, instead.
Fort Stevens State Park, OR
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Rain overnight but sunny, a gorgeous day, high 60s
We went to town, Warrenton, that is, for breakfast at the Serendipity Café. Then we set out to explore a bit more of the park. We started with Battery Russell. This was a defensive gun emplacement that defended the mouth of the Columbia River during WWII. The battery faces south with other batteries defending toward the west and north. It actually saw action, of a sort, during the war. On June 21, 1942 it took fire from the deck guns of the Japanese submarine, I-25. Instead of having his batteries fire back, the commander ordered an immediate blackout and not to return fire in order to hide their exact positions. The attack did no significant harm.
Afterwards, we visited the Warrenton Public Library where we refilled our recreational reading book box and used their WiFi to do e-mail. Afterwards, Sandy took a walk on the beach while Bill nursed his ailing knee and worked on the log.
For dinner we went to Fultano’s Pizza in Warrenton where Sandy enjoyed some of their fine, gluten free fare.
This night we did return to the beach to watch the sun set. It was also a full moon night and we watched the moon rise above the dunes just as the sun set to the west!
