Sunday, August 22, 2010

Ocean in View! Oh the Joy!

So wrote William Clark on November 7, 1805. After 18 months and more than 4,000 miles, the Expedition was in sight of the Pacific Ocean.


We arrived at the Astoria, Oregon gathering and immediately started sightseeing. We got a view of the Cape Disappointment lighthouse from the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center there. While there, we got a talk on the mistakes L & C made. It seems their biggest mistake was that they brought way too much ammunition. But that's way better than too little!


Then we went over to the North Head Lighthouse.


We got to go to the top, and got a view of the entrance to the Columbia River in the distance.


We "proceeded on" to the town of Long Beach where we found one of the four L & C monuments telling the story of their arrival and stay on the Pacific Coast.


This one shows William Clark etching his name on a pine tree on November 19, 1805.


But the main reason we are here is the 30th Annual International Kite Festival.


The star of the show is Ray Bethell, the multiple kite champion of the world.


He flies 3 kites at once, without getting them tangled up - one in each hand, and one around his waist. I tried to do a video, but it's hard keeping the kites in the pictures. So I found one on YouTube instead:


7 comments:

  1. SO YOU MADE IT!! what a journey--both by L&C and by the Wins!!
    The lighthouse photos are awesome, love the comfort a lighthouse provides--
    When we were kids we used to make our own kites out of brown paper and sticks..they hardly got off the ground, and sometimes we would buy one of those one dollar kits, what fun it was to imagine that our kites would be caught up in a stiff breeze. Amazing kite flying going on in there!!!

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  2. Wow that all looks like so much fun thanks for sharing and happy trails!

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  3. Thanks for the tour, this area is on our list-maybe even next month.

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  4. Good to see you're having clear weather. Have to check out that kite festival, put it on our future trip plans.

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  5. It much have been amazing to watch that guy fly those kits. The video was great. Hard to believe that I person could control those three kites and make it look so easy.

    Kevin and Ruth
    www.travelwithkevinandruth.com

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  6. I had no idea about that historical column in Astoria; just shows you need to be there to really see everything! You really traveled the whole Trail--Congratulations! I am in Grand Teton National Park this week. Are you coming over??

    Patricia

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