Monday, July 27, 2009

The Mouth of the Columbia and Ilwaco, WA

We did some exploring today at the mouth of the Columbia River and checked out the South Jetty where the Columbia flows into the Pacific. The jetty was constructed in the late 1800's and has filled in with sand and added about 1 extra mile of coastline.

The Army Corps of Engineers has built an observation tower here so that you can see the ocean and the river join forces. Even on this calm day, the waves were quite large and pounded on the shore. I would not want to be in a boat on the bar here!

We crossed the large bridge (4.3 miles long!) over the Columbia to Washington and headed for Cape Disappointment. We enjoyed the beautiful ride and stopped at Ilwaco, WA which features a great harbor and a wonderful museum, which we happened upon.

This was another great, community museum and depicted the interesting history of the area. One real surprise was the display on the Sector, a row boat that was rowed across the Pacific Ocean and reached America at Ilwaco. Wow -- think about trying to ROW across the 6,300 miles of the Pacific! Click to learn more of Gerard d’Aboville who did this amazing (solo) transit.

The museum also featured the railroad roots of Ilwaco and featured this remarkable model rail road built by a local resident in the 30's and 40's. Everything on the layout is hand built -- the tracks, wheels, locomotives, etc. This amazing craftsmanship was a delight to look at.

Finally, it was lunch time. And, as luck would have it, Thursday was Oyster Day! You could get all kinds of different oysters at the special price! What a deal. We ended up with a nice variety of fried oysters that were simply great.The restaurant was located right on the harbor, so we ate oysters and watched the boats come in to port. Great!

1 comment:

Sarah V. said...

This area is one of my favorite (I'm actually from Seattle, but visit once or twice a year). Glad to see you enjoyed your time there!