A recent trip to Astoria found us charmed once again by this historic outpost, this time in particular by the stories of the volunteer conductors on the Riverfront Trolly - where else could you hear the tales such as old timers who discreetly entered a nearby brothel by passing through the doors of the hardware store which was below the "house of ill repute?"
It was a warm and wonderful spring weekend in Astoria, and we enjoyed walks along the Astoria Riverwalk, a 5.1 mile, west - east path, spending way too much time photographing the river birds as they frolicked on the abandoned piers. Watching water fowl is a special spring thing.
The ducks were so playful in the springtime sun!
I have to confess that the Spring Agrocybe do hold a special place in my heart. They often pop up in the most unexpected places, filling lawns, flower beds and open spaces with their tan-brown, 1- 3 inch caps, positioned on moderately thick stems with a membranous ring. They're a part of my spring thing. No, they're not considered edible, but they're a part of the fungal world that enhances and enriches our lives.
No! No verpa or morels were discovered, although we keep hearing rumors of successful hunters elsewhere. Verpa and morels can be so shy, but we were encouraged by whispers that morels were showing in the Applegate area in March and April. We've been counseled to plan a foray to Hyatt Lake in May and Howard Prairie in June. Still, no memorable edible mushroom outing was to be had on this trip up to the tip of Oregon's North coast.
Yes! There were a number of memorable restaurant finds that could count as special spring things. We'd never lunched at Josephine's in Astoria before but you can count on us returning. It's a simple operation: you order at the counter, and the food is delivered to the spotless table. The smoked salmon bagel, served open face, with an extremely moist and generous portion of salmon was to die for! Trust me when I say that Josephine's Smokehouse may not have the ambiance of the Bridgewater Bistro down the street, but the food and, in particular, the maple smoked salmon can't be beat.
Likewise, we'd never stopped at the Pirate's Cove just outside of Garibaldi before this excursion. Over the years we've always talked about dropping in, but we continually seemed to be passing by at the wrong time for lunch or dinner, or we were tired and just wanted to get to our destination, or for some reason or another. Truthfully, the view over Tillamook Bay should have been reason enough to stop long before this trip.
It was late afternoon when we arrived at the Pirate's Cove, so we ordered a light supper of chowder followed by a spectacular, multilayered chocolate dessert whose richness almost did us in even though there were 2 of us nibbling on the single slice. Based on this visit, we'll be sure to save some room for dessert at the Pirate's Cove every time we're in the area, whatever the time of day.
Eager for a special breakfast on the last morning of our trip, we splurged with a visit to Firehouse Grill in Seaside. It's set in an unassuming location closer to Highway 26 than to the Prom but inside the brick building there were fresh purple tulips on the table, a gracious and efficient staff, and a chicken friend steak that would be the envy of any of a thousand breakfast joints. Yummy!
In spite of the pleasure of this trip, perhaps the greatest joy we had was to return home and wake up the next morning to find a Ceanothus Silkmoth (Hyalophora euryalus) perched on a pile of lumber outside the garage door.
Enchanted by the site of this striking member of the Saturniidae family with its generous 5 inch wing span and its meager 10-day adult life span, we hovered over it for about an hour, snapping photographs and anticipating that it would soon warm and unfold its wings so that we could see the upper side of the specimen. At last, it took flight, but the memory of this serendipitous encounter will forever be a special spring thing.
We're convinced that the Ceanothus Silkmoth may be the very large moth that has visited in the dark of the night over the past 15 years, bumping up against our windows from time to time and then quickly taking off before we could clearly identify it. This daytime encounter was different, and we had a great deal of time to admire the moth with its reddish brownish wings, narrow white lines with a touch of brownish red and black overscaling, and the elongated comma markings before it flew off. Ceanothus Silkmouth: what a great way to be welcomed home!