Oregon's north coast.

We've spent the last two days exploring the Oregon north coast. It's as pretty as the rest of Oregon's coastline with lots of little towns and rugged hills extending down to the ocean.

We spent a few hours Sunday with long time (as in 40 years) friends Bill and Geri. They now live on a hill overlooking the river in Nehalem. What a pretty place to live! It was great to "catch up" on the family and we even talked a little about the "good ole days".

Monday it was off to Astoria about 40 miles north of Nehalem. Fort Stevens is located at the mouth of the Columbia river on a peninsula. Fort Stevens was located here to defend the Columbia River from enemy ships and was the site of one of two attacks on US soil by Japanese submarines in 1942.

This is a 6 inch gun turret that housed a six man crew... all inside the gun. From it's location it was capable of shelling enemy ships as far as 9 miles away

The historical society is restoring this 6 inch gun and is locating it on the site of an original 10 inch gun. The mechanism is the same, it's just smaller. The gun will raise shoot and retract just as the original did.

From Fort Sevens we headed about 5 miles away to Fort Clapton. Here, Lewis and Clark spent 4 months preparing to return to St Louis. The original fort was destroyed but this replica has been built on the site.

Today (Tuesday) we'll explore more of the coast then head toward home tomorrow with a stop at the Rogue River and a couple of days at Lassen. Home on Sunday if all goes well. Why is it that the fun times pass so quickly?

The next post will Probably be from New Zealand late next month. Till then, happy trails.