Astoria: The Most Wicked Place On Earth

Last weekend was Valentine’s Day. It was also President’s Day, and also Oregon’s birthday. And there was a Sausage Fest too. It was also the anniversary of my meeting Dave Knows, two years ago. So we decided to skip town for the weekend and go to one of our favorite getaways, Astoria, Oregon.

We checked into The Commodore. I wrote about it last year, six weeks after they opened (more on the hotel’s restoration here). The Commodore (our favorite!) is in the middle of downtown Astoria, it’s cheap and it’s cute as hell. And it’s waaaaay hipper than we are. And it’s right around the corner to Fort George Brewery (our favorite!) where we went for dinner, and Blue Scorcher Cafe (our favorite!) where we went for breakfast. Each of these establishments make us excited for what may be in store in the future for  Astoria.

On Saturday, it was raining but not too cold or windy. We planned to walk around town, maybe see some museums and climb some hills to see some neighborhoods. I was happy to have read Astoria: An Oregon History which I had picked up at Godfather’s Books on one of our last visits. It helped me appreciate that this town is 200 years old, which may as well be 2000 years old by west coast city standards.

This is as close as we got to the Astoria Column, meaning, not very close at all. But it appeared through the clouds and I snapped a photo, so that technically means we “saw” it .

I’m sort of a dork for history. We both are, thankfully. We commented that we were trudging around in the rain, peering out from our raincoats, taking photos of old forts and looking for sites we read about in our book. Perhaps a majority of people would rather stay home and watch TV. And fight for the remote until they despise each other.

We stopped at the Astoria Heritage Museum. Again, this was probably more enjoyable for me after reading up on the history of the city. This place had been a rocking town, back in the day.

We floated around the museum and read placards on photos, from the early fur trapping days and trade with natives, to the rise and fall of fishing and canneries, the influx of immigrants from China and Scandinavia, to the prohibition era and the opium dens, and then the rise and fall of the timber industry.

Circa 1908 “A group of gentlemen enjoy a beer on the lawn of an Alderbrook home on Cedar Street. Prohibition would take effect just a few years later.” (Astoria Heritage Museum)

June 3, 1919. “Ben Jarrell (left) and Bill Clark (right) stand in front of the county jail. The two men were arrested for allegedly operating an illegal still on Lewis and Clark.” (Astoria Heritage Museum)

We knew from reading our book that there was an influx of Finns at the height of the cannery era. They were flagrant socialists.

(Astoria Heritage Museum)

You can click on the image above to blow it up. It shows royalty/government, religion, military and the leisure class all crushing the working class below. Huh. Goddamned socialist Finns didn’t know how good they had it. Get back to work, Finns!

After the Heritage Museum, we huffed and puffed through some of the neighborhoods in the hills. Some of the sidewalks actually have stairs built in. There’s no lack of cardio in this town. We imagined living in one of the little houses overlooking the river and downtown. We don’t need a big house. Just a little one.

We made our way back to our hotel to come in from the rain. We noticed a coffee shop was going into the retail space of the hotel. We were bummed to miss their grand opening by a week. But owner Denise Heckles rolled open the door and invited us in for a coffee.

The aesthetic fits perfectly with the restored Commodore Hotel. It’s perfectly shiny and new, but aged and burnished with the retro qualities shared by the hotel. It will be great to stumble down the stairs first thing in the morning and get an espresso drink to read the paper with.

After putting our feet up for a while, we took the recommendation of @Slainte_Mhaith and visited Shallon Winery, again, right around the corner from our hotel. Owner Paul van der Veldt makes unusual fruit wines not available anywhere else.

As we arrived at the winery, another couple followed behind us. Paul showed us the winery and the lab and guided us through a selection of his wines. It was evident he has recited his lecture thousands of times. He barked it with the efficiency of a cattle auctioneer, and seemed concerned for our time when the other couple with us became rather chatty.

We tasted blackberry wine (very dry and sharp), apple wine (sweet, spicy and reminiscent of dessert cordial), cranberry whey wine (made with milk ingredients and quite delicious) and a chocolate orange wine. We bought one of each. Two of the cranberry. We have already opened the chocolate orange wine and served it as a sauce over pound cake. Delicious.

As we were tasting his wines, Paul grilled us on where we were from and what we did for a living, and made notes in a notebook. He said he has amassed a network of helpful folks by speaking with his guests, including someone who has set up google alerts for him when “Shallon Winery” is mentioned. So thanks, Paul, for a lovely tour. If you enjoy unconventional wines and want to hear a little history, pop into Shallon Winery for a tasting. Be ready to carry a few bottles out with you.

That night, we made reservations at Fulio’s for dinner. It was Saturday and it was the day before Valentine’s. We’ve eaten at Fulio’s before and haven’t been disappointed. We were surprised to get a bottle of wine, entrees, dessert and a walnut cordial (delicious) for under $80. We were actually pleasantly surprised at each meal we had in Astoria. They all seemed a lot cheaper than Portland, and much, much cheaper than silly meals you might get in Seaside or Cannon Beach.

We walked around a little after dinner and saw a few galleries open for Astoria’s Second Saturday Art Walk. The town’s art scene is vibrant and up and coming, and another sign of good things in store for Astoria. Despite being right on the river and near the ocean, there’s no beach. It’s not an obvious place to attract tourists and art aficionados. But there are plenty of local artists and crafts people, as we saw over the summer at the Sunday Market. Unlike other businesses that might compete and cannibalize each other to sell goods to consumers, art only gets stronger when there is more of it. I hope to see more galleries and art studios revitalizing downtown. Maybe we’ll open one ourselves.

The next day, we had breakfast at Andrew and Steve’s Cafe, the kind of local, frozen-in-time, greasy spoon that doesn’t have a website. It was packed and we were the youngest people in the whole place. I had a a crab omelet special that had giant pieces of fresh crab, the size of my head. Delicious and low cal!

We took one last stroll of downtown and popped into Godfather’s Books. I’m always looking for books to commemorate fun trips. Especially dorky history books.

We checked out of the hotel and headed south on 101 to Warrenton and Fort Clatsop. Magically, the weather cleared up a little and it became a really nice day. We walked the path to Netul Landing, where the canoes landed back in the olden days.

We walked the easy mile and a half trail with the sun in our faces. We had the trail to ourselves. Sunday was our two year anniversary. Valentine’s Day. Dave thanked me for coming out and doing interesting, fun things with him. How lucky we are, that we both enjoy dorky stuff like this.

It beats fighting over the remote.

Here is Dave’s write up of our trip.

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Categories: Happy Day, Oregon, Photos, Road Trips