Life may have many disappointments but…

With the sun breaking out it only meant one thing – road trip and a hike! Sunday may have started out cloudy but by about 11:00 am the sun shone brightly. The first order of business for the day was a visit to the Astoria Sunday Market. Most of the markets we have attended during this spring and early summer have been a bit disappointing when compared to those we visited last year on the east coast . But the Astoria Sunday Market was quite nice and had a nice diversity of shops. We were able to score some nice cherries, blueberries and even some baby bok choy.

Then it was off to the north for one last visit to the state of Washington where we hoped to get in a nice hike on Cape Disappointment. As we crossed the Astoria Bridge we ran into our first “disappointment” in that there was construction on the the bridge causing it to be restricted to one lane. If you travel in this area be prepared as they said it wont be completed till 2015…Yikes!

The drive along the coastline of the Columbia River and by the ocean was nice. We stopped at a county park to enjoy our picnic lunch and take in the view of the Columbia River entering the ocean. Then we headed on to the town of Ilwaco, a small fishing village. From there it was on to Cape Disappointment, which as nice as it was, turned out to be our second disappointment since they charge $10.00 to park. Opting to not fork over the ten bucks we drove back across the Astoria Bridge and this time luckily didn’t have to wait.

Since Cape Disappointment lived up to its name for us we were heading back to our park to get in a nice hike when we noticed a sign for the Lewis and Clark National Park. A visit to the park was in order and we strolled through the visitors center and toured the small Fort Clatsop before finding a suitable 3 mile hike. The hike was nice as it had some interpretative material and as we strolled along the river we noticed the spur into the woods so we chose that route.

Signage and interpretation along this route were absent and even though the trail was maintained when we found ourselves at a fork in the trail we had no clue which was the correct path back to the visitor’s center. The one we chose unfortunately was a trail in poor condition, It became obvious  this trail may not be the right one we were looking for. Reverting back to my sense of direction I led Sharon, without her full trust, down an old road that eventually led us to a National Park Service building. Following this road led us to the main road and eventually to the path that took us back to the visitor’s center.

So it may seem that our day was full of disappointments but the reality is that even a day as disappointing as this was still heaps better than most any good day we had in our working lives… Yes, I think we are still well suited to this lifestyle and look forward to other disappointments down the road.

Little did I know…