Our Vacation Last Month

During first part of June we took our camper and our Chucky dog to the Oregon coast to camp. It had been many years since we had last stayed at Oregon's premier state park Fort Stevens near Astoria. There are so many things to do at this very large park that you could easily spend more than a week there.

We had to make several trips to the store for things we did not have or forgot to bring with us. One was this great pop up screen enclosure. The mosquitoes were plentiful and very hungry!

Every day we would drive out to the mouth of the Columbia River where it meets the Pacific ocean. One morning we saw some of the resident Roosevelt elk that inhabit the park.

We saw eagles most every day. It is so great to know that their numbers are on the rise.

But what we really came for was the ship traffic. Many types of vessels cross the Columbia river bar to head upriver to inland ports.

We were able to get an idea as to what ships were coming and when they would pass by reading the website - The Ship Report - All Things Maritime by Joanne Rideout. She also does a report on weekdays that is broadcast on the local radio stations and is available via podcast, too.

Chucky enjoyed the time watching for the ships - and any other moving thing!

We tracked the ship traffic live on our laptop with the live ships map at Marinetraffic.com where you can track ships around the world. It is an addictive website for me!

The river traffic varied every day - from cargo ships to fishing vessels.

The size of some of the ships is so amazing. We could have watched ships all day. There were many things we had planned to do while there but having a wild puppy with us curtailed our adventures. Can't wait to go back again. To be truthful, it seems like it was a couple of years ago anyway!!