This exclamation comes from Clark's diary, when the Lewis and Clark Expedition finally reached the pacific coast. They explored the U.S. west from May 1804 to September 1806, starting near St. Louis. They made its way westward, and passed through the continental divide to the Pacific coast. President Thomas Jefferson had initiated it shortly after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and had designated Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend, 2nd Lieutenant William Clark, as commanders. End of 1805 the corps reached the coast close-by Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River, and spent a harsh winter in Fort Clatsop (pics below), which was reconstructed.
On Tuesday, we explored McMinnville (left pic) a little more before departure, found a nice bakery and coffeeshop, and afterwards slowly drove through the beautiful Willamette Wine Country towards the coast.
We stopped in Lincoln City (mostly because of the great outlet center there), in Tillamook at the cheese factory (a co-op) - where we had ice-cream, and at a couple of viewpoints and beaches on the way - like famous Haystack Rock (pic) –, before we arrived at our friends' house in Astoria at about 5 pm. Elfi had prepared her wonderful clam chowder for dinner and we spent a very pleasant evening.
Wednesday we went on an excursion to Fort Clatsop and to Short Sands Beach, a wonderful beach, situated in a bay and accessible through a lush rainforest. It is apparently very popular with surfers. We were fortunate and the sun was shining when we were visiting here.
Afterwards we stopped at Oswald West State Park's overview and enjoyed the endless horizon.
Later, we had a meeting at the interesting Port of Astoria, where huge cruise ships on their way to Seattle and on to Alaska stop by in summer and lumber is shipped to China. Had a nice meal of steelhead with all the fixings and good wine then at another friends'home.
Thursday: After eventually sorting through our collected info material, we drove to Fort Stevens State Park with the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale – a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore in a storm in 1906 on the Oregon coast en route to the Columbia River. It is one of the most accessible shipwrecks (at low tide) of the "Graveyard of the Pacific", how this part of the coast is called. The beach up here was covered with countless jelly-like sea creatures called "By-the-wind sailors", which were washed ashore in Oregon, creating what some call a "blue tide". And, of course, we had lots of Scotch Broom (Ginster) again,,,
Last stop: the famous Astoria Column, dedicated in 1926 and modeled after the Trajan's Column in Rome. Decorated with a hand-painted spiral frieze, that would stretch more than 500 feet if unwound, it shows scenes of Astoria's history and from up here the view towards the Columbia River is gorgeous, even with gray skies!
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