Long Beach Peninsula & Astoria, OR








If Long Beach, WA has a "small town America" vibe, the same thing could be said of the other towns on the peninsula and Astoria, OR. But such a vague description encompasses so many flavours. Long Beach is a town that one drives to or drives through, with smooth flat roads and hotels and summer cottage rentals dotted along the coast. Further up the peninsula, Oysterville had an astonishingly well-preserved historic village. The little schoolhouse, red-and-white village church, and pioneer houses dating from the mid-19th century seem as though they were lifted from a novel. Our drive through other parts of the peninsula revealed further delights: bay views, an old cannery, boats at harbour.

On day three of our trip, we left Long Beach--crossing a bridge that was miles long and spanned the Columbia River--and made a brief detour into Astoria, OR. I have a pet theory that small towns always turn the former home of a prominent, upper middle-class Victorian citizen into a heritage museum, and Astoria fit that theory to a tee. We paid for a walk-through tour of the Flavel House Museum, a multi-storey Victorian mansion built in the Queen Anne style for Captain George Flavel, who sailed and navigated the Columbia's treacherous sandbars and made a fortune doing it. Then it was back in the car for our next stop: Portland!

5 comments

  1. My sister-in-law used to live in Astoria and had a view of that same bridge from her hillside home. My hubby and I also bought some of our best China in little antique shops dotted along the main street of Astoria. And here's another tid-bit for you: Arnold Swartzenagger and crew filmed Kindergarten Cop in Astoria and my nephew was in the movie . . .

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  2. Lately I've fallen in love with little "American towns." I know I'm not American but I'd love to live in one.

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  3. Bridechic, that's pretty cool! We did pop into one or two antique shops just to browse their treasures. There's an abundance of china and Depression glass.

    Ko0ty, they are charming, but I don't know how long I could live in one if I couldn't get good Asian food.

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  4. Looks relaxing. Like it could be in any given decade.

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  5. Those places looked quite quaint! Now why does it get my mind thinking that thrilling murder mystery stories could be set in places like these?! LOL

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