To the coast

On my way to the coast I drove through the foot hills and the road seemed to be going up and up. It was still hot as hell outside and the van overheated on the way up a long hill. I stopped for 20 mins to let her cool down and take in the scenery.

Finally I got to the coast and headed north on highway 101 to Astoria, a coastal city. Astoira has this crazy bridge that goes across a large span of water. I don’t know how high up it was, but driving across it was pretty cool.

Best bridge ever

After I crossed I made my way to long beach. On this side of the mountains the weather was a lot more cloudy, and it wasn’t much of a beach day…

The beach goes on for miles

After that I drove back to Astoria and camped out.

The next day I bummed around Astoria, got some free wifi at Safeway and traded in some of my books for new ones at the used book store. I walked along the waterfront and heard a bunch of moanin and groanin.
It turned out to be a bunch of sea lions(or otters? or seals?) sitting on this dock. They were hilarious, one would jump onto the dock and knock another one off, then they would start howlin at each other, then a minute later they’re sleeping again.

Nature's most obnoxious animal

I walked down a long boardwalk on the edge of the water.

It had the best bike-related sign I’ve seen in a while:

No Endos!

After hanging around for a bit I decided to head in the direction of Mount St. Helens. Driving over there took longer than expected, so I stayed overnight in a state park.

The next day I headed up the mountain…