It may be the start of a new weekend, but I want to do a quick scenes from the weekend before it’s obsolete!
Well, we can’t win’em all, so this is our camping/eclipse recap. Check in tomorrow for the most recent weekend recap.
Last weekend at the crack of dawn (9am) we set out on our Seattle to McMinnville expedition to view the total solar eclipse, or as marketed at the local Fred Meyer “The Great American Solar Eclipse”.
Despite warnings from WSDOT and ODOT, the traffic to Oregon was seemingly better than an average Saturday on I5 South. Any car ride longer than 3 hours feels like eternity and in my eyes requires multiple stops to break up the drive, so once we hit Portland we grabbed lunch and rested. A few hundred dollars and bag full of new clothes later, we drove to the local river, pumped up our inflatable paddleboards and cruised along the Tualatin river.
After a good hour of slow paddling, we rolled up the boards and finished the drive home only to eat dinner and crash from a long day.
Sunday included winetasting under sunny skies and fighting off yellow jackets with forks. The men in our lives are fearless when it comes to these pests, hand them a fork and the bees won’t stand a chance.
Going into the eclipse I was excited about the event, but felt like I would have been content seeing a 95% eclipse. After experiencing a total eclipse I’d advocate for all to take the time to see a total eclipse if they have the time/resources. The change in temperature, the chirping crickets, and the birds that went silent completed the entire experience and something only those at 100% totality will experience.
If you missed the eclipse this time around, hopefully you can make the trek to Texas and witness the next event.
In an effort to avoid the eclipse return traffic, we planned to camp for a night in Astoria at Fort Stevens State Park. This state park offers almost 500 varying campsites ranging from yurt, RV, and tent sites; we managed to secure the last spot at the state park, I think it’s time to buy a lottery ticket- talk about lucky!
We “baked” cinnamon the next morning in an orange rind on our camping stove. Everything tastes better when cooked outside, but these cinnamon rolls would crush the competition at your favorite breakfast spot.
Check out this glaze!
We barely explored the sites of the park, but managed to walk the old fort just off the water and drive to the beach to see the old shipwreck. If we ever make it back to this campground we’ll have to bring bikes or borrow a set of cruisers to bike the trails.
It shaped up to be a full weekend and my only night in a tent this summer! The PNW realistically has 1 full month of summer left, so I’ll need to make an effort for one more weekend of camping.
Cheers to a new week!