Astoria Part 1

As is our way, we got a late start on Saturday.  So before we even went to the hotel, we headed right to this boat in a parking lot (before it closed for the day) for some outstanding fish & chips. The fish was moist, tender albacore, which made me say "huh" and "delicious."

As you might gather from the boys expressions, it was stinkin cold out. So we ate in the car.

The next stop was our snazzy hotel.  The boys tried out the balcony.  As you can see, it was still cold.

Here's the view to the right when the snow started falling the next morning.

Here's the view to the left.

And here's the view when a ship went by. We are the sort of people who are pleased to look at boats in general, so the novelty of watching a parade of enormous vessels pass by our bedroom (you could see them from bed!) was a big plus.

Due to our late arrival, we had no ambitious plans for the day. Once the boys had climbed up and down the beds about a hundred times and finished singing their "we're staying in a hotel" song, we joined the rest of the guests in the lobby for the wine and lox reception. In hindsight, I probably should have taken Shaun up on his offer to let me stay for that while he and the boys went to the Astoria column. (Check out the link for interesting info and photos.) 

I didn't want to miss it, though, so the boys chugged some enormous cups of apple juice and filled up on giant cheese cubes while Shaun and I had a glass of wine with one eye on the sky. We were trying to make it to the column before it closed at dusk.

We made it before dusk. Alas, the column was closed for repairs and we were denied the warming task of climbing its 164 stairs. The weather had gone from stinkin cold to friggin cold and those of us not on a photographic quest quickly ran for the shelter of the car. The view really was worth it, though. I haven't been anywhere exactly like Astoria, and that makes it all the more fun.

Willem kept asking if we could go home for hot chocolate. Like ALL THE WAY home.  Instead, we hunkered down in our hotel room and Shaun fetched us some burgers for dinner. We put the boys in their pj's and went down to the lobby for cookies at 8. At that point the long, long night began, but we won't speak of that again.