Spring Break!

This is Lon's first spring break.  We thought going to the beach would be a great thing to do, it is spring break, right?
We wanted to break up our trip a little bit, so we drove down to Astoria on Saturday morning. We made great time. The first thing we wanted to do was go up to the Astoria Column.

The stairs are finally finished being refurbished. We could climb to the top to see the view! Well, Lon could not make all 164 steps and Mark took him back down about 1/3 of the way up. (and Mark was not dealing well with the height thing either, so it was a win-win). I was determined to make it to the top! I did. All 164 twisty stairs!

The view from the top! There were two Asian ladies behind me and all they kept saying was She is beating us up the stairs. Come on! I HAD to go and go up faster!  When I got down I went to the gift stand, paid my dollar and got the button that proudly stated I made it to the top.

A rainbow over the bridge.

We drove down the hill to the Columbia Maritime Museum, and as we walked in we all realized we were so very hungry. We asked about a place to eat, the volunteer told us that most places to eat were about three blocks away, but to leave the car here and walk since parking was scarce on the streets.  Which is what we did!

Driftwood on our way to town

At the Sea Breeze. It looked like it might be good. It was. Everything is made right there, tarter sauce, coleslaw, the batter! The fish was fresh and good.

After Lon ate his lunch, all his fish and some of his fries, I told him he could try the deep fried twinkie. We had never had one before. Perhaps if this one had not been fried in the same oil as the fish it would have been better. I was not impressed and neither was Lon or Mark. It was presented nicely though

Into the Columbia Museum. Lon loves the place. This time he looked at some of the exhibits

Before he started playing in the pilot house with some other kids. He would run between there and

The bridge of the USS Knapp. The kids loved whatever elaborate games they were making up as they went along. It was so much fun. Mark and I took turns watching the drama, so we both got to look at the museum. It took alot of effort to get Lon to leave the bridge. I only got him away to show him a volunteer teaching people how rope was made. He had one person (the stronger one) hold this piece of brass that he had some twine resting on. He threaded the twine over four different cup hook looking things on a platform in between Lon and I. Lon was sitting down on a no back chair with a board in front of him that the twine pieces were tied to. He turned a crank and the twine started to twist. It got harder to me to hold the forming rope straight and as long as I could get it.  Then he removed the center platform, and gave me a hand crank, which I turned as he ran the brass piece down toward Lon. He tied a special knot at the end and we had rope! (Daddy did have to help Lon crank his part toward the end) Lon is so proud of his rope. I will insert a photo of him and his rope soon. Then it was time to leave. Lon was happy to go so he could show off his rope.

I am going to end the blog for today here. Our next stop was Fort Stevens, and I will get that up tomorrow.