Day 13: Lewis & Clark Museum and Packwood, WA

content="Microsoft Word 2008"> We started out with an excellent morning because our plastic sack window was traded in for a real-life glass window. We were greeted very early by Tanner and his black lab companion Razz in their mobile glass-fixing truck from Astoria. After an hour and a half of knocking, banging, whirring and wiggling, our new window was in place. With new found enthusiasm, we packed up in the rain and headed for Astoria, which is about fifteen minutes away. Along the way, we saw one of the funniest garages we'd ever seen - it was covered in old buoys the owner must have found along the beach. Our parents should never complain about our pack-rat tendencies ever again.

It was another rainy morning, but this didn’t dampen our spirits, because we were on our way to visit the house where part of The Goonies was filmed. The house looked a bit different, but we loved it nonetheless.

We didn’t spend too much longer in the town, but we did squeeze in time to snatch a few chicken and black bean burritos from TacoTime, which is Oregon’s version of Taco Bell. The lady who made our burritos used a huge metal pastry gun filled full of guacamole to top off our lunches; we were in awe and thoroughly wished we could take such a good idea with us in the car to make every day a chips, salsa and “guac” day! No more having to DIP your corn chips! Soon enough, we were on the interstate heading into the state of Washington.

Right over the border, we were in the vicinity of the trail that Lewis and Clark blazed in their search of the Pacific Ocean in the very early 1800’s. We were both interested in this long journey, so we stopped at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center to learn more. The museum was set up as a long timeline, and we got a better understanding of the hardships endured as we walked and read our way down the timeline. There were some really interesting artifacts from the actual excursion, making it hard not to feel as if you were right there with the explorers, toiling and struggling through the mountains and swamps. After some time in here, we enjoyed the nice weather outside on a balcony overlooking the infamous Cape Disappointment.

We still had a bit of driving to do before we would reach our resting place for the night, so we left the beautiful view behind us, and hit the road. Along the way, we passed a stunning lake called Mayfield Lake; the mountains hit the water at 45-degree angles while the trees were mirrored in its glassy water. Right after we finished taking pictures of the lake, a huge rainbow came into view right in front of us. Unfortunately though, no gold.

When we reached the small town of Packwood, we realized it only had three places to eat. We took our best bet and dined at the local pub where the townies told us have the best pizza. Here we kicked back for a few hours and did some more planning before heading to the Hotel Packwood. This was a cozy bed and breakfast, and we felt very at home in the historic building. The place was run by “Marilyn,” an older woman who had her grandchildren staying with her at the time. We found rocking chairs on the wrap-around porch to sit in and slept under quilts.