I had a church assignment out in Seaside, Oregon on Sunday, and took one of the kids along for the fun.We left early, not knowing how the roads would be for ice... they were nice and clear, and we had a beautiful sunrise when we hit Astoria.
We were early to Seaside, so we stopped by the beach to see if the sand was frozen. It wasn't, but it was COLD!We had most of the beach to ourselves, and wandered about the boardwalk for a bit. Saw the seals at the aquarium, then dashed off to church.
Afterwards, we stopped by the Astoria Column again since she hadn't been there before.She wanted to show her bro that she was as big, too!
Again we were the only ones at the column... and it was alittle freaky for her to be up that high.
We didn't spend much time on top, but raced back down the 160 stairs!
Another nice side-stop was the Gnat Creek Fish Hatchery. We stop there often and fatten the fish.Much of the pen was iced over, but the fish were active and hungry.
There was a new chart up with information from recent tagging studies in the Columbia River. We never would have guessed that the keeper sturgeon were so OLD!A 43" fish that is barely long enough to keep is about 11-12 years old! A large 60" fish (high-end of the keeper range) is about 20 years old!
Kind of made us feel alittle guilty about keeping something so old to eat... hmmm.
The trout were frisky and fast.We spent alot of time at the hatchery. There was some snow but the roads were nice.
With all the cold weather, all of the small waterfalls along the highway were frozen, and beautiful.We had to stop, of course ;-)
And then the long ride back to home. It was unusual for the chatter-box to be so quiet, but she was worn out!A great day and lots of fun time.
Thanks for a great trip, missy-missy-chicken-pum!
