Goonie Adventure in Astoria Oregon

Astoria, Oregon is located on the northern Oregon coastline near the mouth of the Columbia River. Astoria, and Warrington, are located at the western end of the Lewis and Clark Trail [ref]. Multiple movies have been filmed in Astoria, including, The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle III, Short Circuit, Free Willy I and II, Benji and The Ring Two [ref].

Like many of our adventures, our trip to Astoria was horribly planned. We drove down from Seattle on the evening of July 3rd for our extended 4th of July weekend in 2004. Little did we know that Astoria is the vacation destination of Oregon for the 4th of the July weekend and we spent the first night sleeping in our car, only to be woken up the next morning by the staff of Fort Stevens Park Ranger (you're not supposed to sleep in the parking lot!). Afer waking up and talking with the Park Ranger about getting a camp site for the evening, we made our way into town to see if we could find anything to eat. We stopped into the local Pig 'N Pancake which is a must stop if you're ever in Astoria. After the yummy grub, we took off for Fort Stevens State Park and went tromping around on the beach. The most notable thing on the beach, other than the obvious sand and water, is the old shipwreck located just offshore of the Fort (on the low tide beach).

After running around Fort Stevens we thought we'd head south to Ecola State Park and Cannon Beach because this is the site of one of the first scenes (car chase scene across the beach) in the Goonie movie, plus it was too early to be loitering around someones home taking pictures. We didn't limit our adventure to the Goonie movie, otherwise we would have missed the basalt located on Cannon Beach.

We spent a couple hours just wandering around the beach until we were forced to higher ground due to the incoming tide. Actually, I started for higher ground before Bob as he didn't believe me that the tide was coming in. I was avenged, however, because the tide got him and he didn't leave Cannon Beach dry. Of course, I wasn't either, because I'm incapable of being near a beach and not getting wet.

No trip to Cannon Beach would be complete without pictures of Bird Shit Island. There's also a cave on the beach among the basalt if you're interested in exploring. It's not deep but you can always pretend. Just watch out for the tide!

After trekking Cannon Beach we headed back to Fort Stevens to secure a camp site for the evening. Luck was with us and we slipped into a cozy campsite before heading off to find the "Goonie House." The owners were in the process of fixing the place up so we didn't get too close. Of course, they knew why we were there taking pictures of their home so they made themselves scarse long enough for us to take a couple shots.

We also took a couple shots of "Data's House" and a shot of the Astoria Bridge which is seen periodically in the movie. The bridge is also seen in Short Circuit and a couple of the films filmed in Astoria.

After stopping by the "Goonie House" we made our way through the streets of Astoria to The Flavel House, the place where Mikey's dad works. On our way there we came across the Elementary School used in Kindergarten Cop. Next on our list, and across the street from the Flavel House was the jail from the beginning of the movie. We made a great video of Bob jumping in the Saturn and us speeding off, but we don't have a sunroof and the whole thing is more likely a "ya had to be there moment." If only we'd had fire with us.

After the jail we decided to just wander around town and see what was going on. Since it was the 4th of July, we figured the best thing to do would be to stake out a nice spot to watch the fireworks from. We figured the best location would be near the Astoria Tower. From there, we climbed to the top to check out the view then returned to the base and setup for a game of chess on the lawn in north of the tower. I mention the chess game because it was a significant event, and a turning point in our chess playing world. My shining moment in chess-dom had occured, I had finally beaten Bob at a game of chess!

We sat around playing chess till it began to get dark and a crowd of families started joining us on the hill. As the evening wore on we huddled together to keep warm (it is the Pacific Northwest and it was cold!) as we waited for the fireworks to begin.

After the fireworks we returned to our campsite and started a fire to warm ourselves from the cool night air. With fire we made some grub for dinner and sat back for a relaxing evening.

The next day we made breakfast and lounged around all morning before finally packing up the tent and heading home to Seattle.