Astoria--Saturday, part 1

We had a full day planned for Saturday, and it started with the buffet breakfast in the hotel.  Marcus did the first wave (Gem and Posa) and brought some yogurt up for Sedric. Then I took the 2 oldest down and we had a nice leisurely breakfast.

lots of yummy breakfast choices

Next we packed up to go see Historic Fort Stevens.  First we took a little detour to see the old shipwreck, the Peter Iredale:

 That was fantastic for the kids to be able to play on the beach, especially in the nice weather.  They explored and burned off some energy.  Not enough energy, though, because they were fighting on the short drive on the way to Fort Stevens.  I tried to distract them by making up a fake need to look out for deer....and what happened?  We saw a real deer right away!!  Ha ha ha!!  So that kept them busy for the rest of the drive.

 Fort Stevens was really cool.  It had a small "museum" and gift shop but mostly we just walked around and saw the sights.  I liked that it was a more "modern" fort, last in use for World War II.  I told the kids about their great-grandfathers' efforts in the war, and it was interesting to me to imagine that era.  I bought an amazing little booklet at the gift shop, written by someone stationed at Fort Stevens.  Again, I thought of my grandparents, particularly Grandpa H. who was a signalman on an aircraft carrier (correct me if I'm wrong, mom).

I explained to Gemma about cannons and
how they were "really big guns with really
big bullets."

Great Grandpa Chr. worked at a jeep factory in the states
(again, correct me if I'm wrong, mom and dad).

Fort Stevens was critical for defense of the NW coast.

I noticed that Gemma could be trusted to walk around safely,
which is a BIG and welcome change from any field trip we've
taken in past years... :o)

an enemy-aircraft cannon/gun

Don't worry, we held his hands the WHOLE time....

 We drove around a little for lunch and found this gem:  the Serendipity Restaurant.  It was just perfect!  Sandwiches, kids menus, nice atmosphere, lots of room.  We were very pleased.

playing games, waiting for our food to come

That wraps up the first half of Saturday.  :o)  Ok, so I take a lot of pictures!!  Oh well!  The second half of the day was just as fun, so I'll be working on that post as soon as I can.