Astoria and Ancestry

We went to Astoria and had lunch at the BOWPICKER. The line was full of locals, which is always a good sign. We placed our order at the "Kitchen" cabin windows and picked it up under the canopy. Unlike fish at a lot of places, this was not some minced fish product from the frozen food section. It was steak and generous portions. Nice ladies. Bowpickers made of cedar, oak and Douglas Fir and were used to fish for salmon and sturgeon on the Columbia River. They used long floating gillnets, that were hundreds of feet in length. They were retrieved from the bow of the boat, and the fish were picked out of the net.
We finished our lunch and headed across the street to the Mari-time Museum.

Astoria was the home to many Salmon canneries.

I absolutely love these boats!! The Butterfly Fleet. There were more than 2,500 of these gillnetters on the Columbia River in 1904.

The myriad of Salmon Cannery labels are a work of art. I love the colors.

This label portrays Ft. Clatsop, where Lewis and Clark settled when they made their expedition to the Pacific Ocean.

This sailboat picture is for Martha and Matt. : )

The Astoria Riverfront Trolley.

We went across the bridge last time we went to Astoria. This time we didn't spend the night, and it was a short and sweet trip. I've been emailing a long lost cousin, for a couple of months, and we made arrangements to meet. Her Grandma Katherine and my Grandma Anna were sisters. Melora and her mom were so hospitable and friendly. We sat and talked at a little cafe on the riverfront, and then went to the cemetery where her grandparents graves are, and went to Melora's mom's house to visit some more. One highlight to me was when she was showing me the pictures she had of her Grandma, and pulled out a portrait of her grandma as a baby. I reached into the pictures I had brought, and pulled out an identical copy!

They showed us the house where the grandparents had lived in town, and then showed us the place in the country, near Ft Stephens, where they had lived. This marker is about 1/4 of a block from where they lived. The shelling happened late at night and Melora's aunt, uncle, and Dad, were all just kids and scared to death. There's an article about the shelling, describing the three children trembling in their beds.

We love Astoria, and look forward to going again. There's never enough time to do everything we want to do when we go there!
I'm also looking forward to getting together with Melora again, here in the valley, to share some more of our family history.