Fort Stevens State Park

Since April began three short days ago, I have felt the sun's glorious rays on my skin for a total of three hours {actually, just on my face, since it's still fifty degrees outside and so I'm pretty much covered from head to toe at all times}. This is almost three hours longer {give or take five minutes} than the entire month of March. Oh April, I welcome thee with open arms. And even if the sun doesn't come back out until May, which is very possible, you are still okay in my book.

On Saturday Mark and I took a day-trip to the town of Astoria and nearby Fort Stevens State Park, both located in the extreme northwest corner of Oregon where the Columbia River flows into the Pacific. The mouth of the Columbia River is one of the biggest widow-makers on the high seas and has earned the title "Graveyard of the Pacific", claiming more than 2000 ships over the years, including the one photographed below.




As camouflaged as Mark may have been in this wildlife viewing bunker, there wasn't a critter in sight. Actually, we've become convinced the only animals that live in the Pacific Northwest are banana slugs and the two thousand geese that live outside our front door. For the most part, our times outdoors are eerily quiet.



Funny how the act of squinting in the sun's light was once an annoyance, causing grumpiness and headaches. Now it is worthy of documentation and I will look back on this time, my first official squint of 2011, fondly.




This area is very close to where Lewis & Clark ended their journey. They spent 106 days here and it rained all but 12 {which actually sounds rather nice. I'm not sure what they were complaining about}. Here is a typical comment recorded during their stay: "It rained hard all last night, & still continued this same morning. It continued raining during the whole of the day."

Lewis and Clark arrived here in winter, instead of August when the weather is rumored to be amazing. I feel their pain.