Fortuitous

ROLL ON, COLUMBIA: Tuesday, as we departed the Long Beach area, we decided to check out one more state park point of interest, Fort Columbia State Park.

The 593-acre site is steeped in history. The area is home to the Chinook Indian Nation, it was explored by Robert Gray in 1792, the Lewis and Clark's expedition in 1805, and MPA in 2013. :)

The park has a whopping 6,400 feet of freshwater shoreline along the mighty Columbia River. The river's so wide here, it darn near looks like the ocean.  

The main road into the old battlement area leads you right past the gorgeous old rows of wood frame historic houses. 

They are in great repair and so architecturally pleasing to the eye (well, at least my eye!)

We parked and made our way to old concrete bunker/battlement/lookout areas. We're no strangers to such structures any more, having visited awesome Fort Worden in the past, and Fort Canby the day before our Fort Columbia visit. 

There were vertical ladders to climb ... 

long, narrow passages to explore ... 

 Interesting niches and windows to peer into ... 

 
and out of. ...

There were concrete walls to run atop ... (can you spot the kids?)

and interesting bunkers to explore (see anyone you know?). 

Plus, plenty of creaky doors to check out.

Oh, and one more thing. 
Something that made this fort different than any other we'd ever visited.
At Battery 246 there were guns. ...

REALLY BIG GUNS!!!!!!!!! 

The guns have been long gone from every other fort/battery we've visited before. What's kind of ironic is that these guns are not original to this fort. Not even close. They're from Fort McAndrews, Argentia, Newfoundland. Fortunately, rather than throwing the mammoth steel monsters on the scrap pile, when they were surplussed, they were hauled to and installed at Fort Columbia in 1994. 

We were happy to find that when we walked around the backside of the guns, they were open and we could actually go inside.

Below is the view the 'gunner' would have had.

Thankfully, nothing happened when CJ and Annabelle pulled with all their might on what looked to be the launch mechanism.

 

I loved this photo (on an sign at the site) of the old Fort Columbia baseball team.

I found some more neat-o period shots of Fort Columbia here: http://cdsg.org/HDCRdata/columbiaHP.htm, and tonight, I found a great video all about Fort Columbia on YouTube. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjDT70Vhvo8

DISMAL DESTINATION: As we drove east, back toward the Emerald City, we passed a sign letting us know Dismal Nitch was coming up. We most certainly had to stop, as we had passed Dismal Nitch more than a year ago at highway speeds, and CJ was immediately taken with its name. He's talked about it several times since. 

Look at how happy these kids are to be at Dismal Nitch! Who needs Disneyland?!

As you may know, Dismal Nitch got its name from the journal of William Clark.The Corps of Discovery was thisclose to the Pacific. Their fresh food was gone and their clothes were literally falling apart. They were hoping to connect with a trading ship on the Columbia, but a wild winter storm pinned them down right here - peer through the trees, and you'll see a small beach, or 'that dreary little nitch,' as Clark called it.

The explorers spent six miserable days here, unable to safely leave the shoreline.

They probably weren't feeling bold and brave at the moment, but the cool, 3-D bronze monument in the spot depicts them as such. 

The view from the nitch has changed since their day. Now, you have a nice vista of the 4.1 mile long Astoria Bridge.