End of a Journey

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.

~Don Williams, Jr.

Yes, we made it home safe and sound. We made every attempt to enjoy the last leg of our journey by stopping in Cannon Beach for the most excellent pizza in the whole country, Pizza A'fetta, and then topped it off with some imported Italian Gelato from the sweet little coffee shop right next door. After delaying as long as I could, we started north towards Astoria.

It doesn't take long to get from Cannon Beach to Astoria, and once there we enjoyed visiting the Columbia River Maritime Museum - which was very well done. We all learned a lot about the maritime activities one of the most dangerous waterways in the world, the mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific Ocean. There was information about tug and tow boats, barges and commercial fishing boats, both old and new. There was military boats, models of frigates and even part of the bridge of a WWII era Navy Destroyer. There was so much history to read about, as well, with artifacts and artwork of boats that were lost (so many!) in this short stretch of treacherous water. But the most impressive display to me was the Coast Guard lifeboat; it probably doesn't hurt that I have a couple of good friends that are in the Coast Guard. *smile* We also got to see the Lightship Columbia - the boys walked through it and said it was pretty cool. Us girls decided we were worn slap out and went to wait for them in the van.

OK, I think I'm tired. Haha! Y'think?

From there, it was the drive home, which didn't take as long as we thought it would. We actually got home before dark...weird. We take back the rental tomorrow and begin the re-acclimating to home life. We talked about things on the way home, about changes we want to make to make life more enjoyable and more healthy, too; we are hoping to implement these changes this coming week. Ah, the joys of travel - it makes you take a hard look at your status quo.

I have a couple more blog posts poppin' around in my head...lessons learned on this journey, some stats - you know, the basics.

Oh, we also talked about some possibilities for the next road trip...we have visited so much of the country now, we really have a good idea of what we want to do! Planning for another trip does make coming home easier, to be sure.