The Goonies Road Trip, Pt. 1

When we were stationed at Joint Base Lewis- McChord (JBLM) there were several things I wanted to make sure we experienced as a family: Mt Rainier (I could see it from the commissary parking lot!), Mt Saint Helens (I remember reports of ash getting all the way to Pennsylvania when I was in first grade), and the Space Needle (because, we were tourists).

I wasn’t excited about the rain or the cold or the fact I’d be 3,000 miles from immediate family. But it’s the Army and we asked to be at JBLM. There would be would be plenty of opportunities to make special memories adventuring with my sweet family.

Upon Tim’s return from a six-month TDY, we spent our time getting reacquainted as a family by doing what we do best – adventuring. The boys had missed going on hikes and seeing things with Dad. During that time, my mental bandwidth had been limited to playgrounds, soccer practices and doing things with our homeschool and family life groups.

Since Tim got home in November, we decided to avoid the mountains. The roads would have been icy and the skiing wouldn’t be great yet. We pondered what we had been told about the area and poured over maps looking for places to visit. We realized that we hadn’t spent any time in Oregon. A cousin told us to “check out the Tillamook creamery” while in the Pacific Northwest.

We looked at a map and noticed that one of the towns we would pass between JBLM and the creamery was Astoria, Oregon, the setting for my favorite childhood movie “The Goonies”.

It was settled.  We would take a long weekend to combine the boys’ desire to adventure with Dad and my desire to have a leisurely road trip to satisfy my 80’s nostalgia.

Side Note: This is the route we SHOULD have taken. We missed two of these towns on the trip and went back to see them 18 months later.  

Lesson learned: If you don’t have time for the whole trip in one weekend, break it down into a couple trips! Make it work for your schedule. Don’t trash the whole trip because you can’t fit everything in to one adventure. Pick a few stops and see those. Then commit to go back later and see the rest of the sights!

Lighthouses, Sasquatch and Frying Pans

Ideally, we would have made use of the Rt 101 corridor from Olympia to the southern Washington coast to stop by Long Beach, WA. It is at the intersection of US Route 101 and Washington State Route 103, just north of Cape Disappointment State Park.  This park protects a couple lighthouses. Don’t miss going to at least one. They stand atop cliffs carved from the punishing Pacific Ocean waters.  We ended up picking up this stop 18 months later, in the spring.

We hiked from the parking area to the Cape Disappointment lighthouse on a wooded and pleasant trail. We did not have much elevation change until we got to the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Once there, the path made a sharp turn to the right and up a steep hill to the lighthouse, which was perched upon the cape’s cliff.

Tim and the boys went into the lighthouse for the last tour of the day. We had the dog with us, which was not a problem for the grounds, but the steep lighthouse stairs would have caused problems for our pup. So, I stayed outside gazing at the beautiful sea beneath me, while the men learned about the importance of the Cape Disappointment lighthouse.

Long Beach is a small town just north of the state park. Its peak season is late spring and summer, so it was a not a very busy place when we went in March.

We had fun exploring this cute coastal town. It looked like it would be bustling in a few months. Beach shops lined the boardwalks and ice cream parlors dotted the sides of the main street.

Plenty of stores offered kitsch.  We even found a shop that brought to mind “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” with a life-sized, stuffed Sasquatch in the entryway. Poking around this town with elementary school boys proved to be fun.

Finally, we needed dessert! There were several places open during the off season. We found one: Dylan’s Cottage Bakery. At the time it had desserts as big as your head! It appears to offer lunch now, but still a variety of pastries! It is just down the street from a life-sized Sasquatch.

And there was this giant frying pan! We imagined making our pancakes on this one day. Cakes as big as Sasquatch!

Goonies Never Say Die

Astoria was the destination I was most motivated to see. Upon getting there, we drove up and down streets to see what looked familiar from “Goonies”. Would we see Mikey’s house? The jail?

The town was small enough to follow our noses through the streets and not get very lost or turned around. It helped that as we drove upward into the hills of the town, we could look beneath us and see the roads laid out like a map.

We did see the jail, though we did not go in, as it is the Oregon Film Museum now. It features memorabilia from movies set in Oregon. I was satisfied by seeing the outside, that I didn’t need to see the museum.

We were told that the owner of Mikey’s house did not like people slowing down to take pictures of his house. Rather than seek out the house, we enjoyed driving through the quaint town, and observing how its character was accurately captured in the movie.

Little did I know that Astoria was known for a lot more than just the “Goonies”. There was an active microbrew scene and plenty of restaurants along the river. My favorite moments of our road trip occurred while we had lunch on day two.

We ate at one of the many pubs on the riverwalk. The Buoy Beer Company restaurant was built out over the water. However, based on its website it appears it has temporarily moved due to a collapse. It seems they would like to move back into their iconic building, but it may be a while. You can read more about their plans at their blog. Still, Tim enjoyed their microbrew sampler and we all relished the warm hominess of our lunches.

The food and beer were delicious, but the ambiance was truly unique. While perched over the Columbia River, we had ringside seats and marveled over the barges lined up in the river. They were headed for Portland and in both directions as far as the eye could see.  We even got to see a bit of a show!

As we gazed out the windows of the glassed – in river view, we saw a helicopter hover over the closest barge. A crew member let down a line and a man descended, hovered for a few minutes and wound up on the barge. A short time later, the man ascended back to the helicopter and proceed to the next barge. It was mesmerizing. I felt as if I were watching a movie! Pretty cool since we were in the town where my favorite movie was filmed (in part).

We decided the brave man repelling from the helicopter must have been a person checking out cargo for customs or a Coastie protecting our shores.

The Buoy Beer Company also had windows in the floors. Yes, we could see through the floor! Below the pier was a wild world of sea lions! They napped like cats, woven together, perched on cement slabs and wooden pylons. Hopefully this feature is still available at other boardwalk venues today.

Join Ande next week as she explores treacherous waters where the river and ocean meet, relives parts of one of her favorite movies “The Goonies” and eats the best grilled cheese of her life.