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We made it to Astoria, the official end (or beginning, for those headed eastbound) of the TransAm! Next, we've got two full days of cycling to Portland before boarding Amtrak trains.

Friday stats

New animal sightings!: A harbor seal (Dani saw but I did not), and lots of sea lions 

Start: Fort Stevens State Park

End: Selina Commodore Hotel, Astoria, Ore.

The Daily Progress: 10 miles

Ice cream: No ice cream, but I had a tasty chocolate stout cheesecake after dinner.

Beer: We each had a flight of four at Fort George Brewery. My favorite was the smoked helles. It even beat the porter for me. Note to self: You don't like double stouts — too strong and medicinal-tasting.

Food: $12 for fish and chips at the Bowpickers food "truck," which was actually a food boat:

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 I don't remember who, but someone I met on tour had strongly recommend Bowpickers as the best fish and chips ever, so I figured I'd give it a try, expecting it to be good but not mind-blowing. I even met a group of three people in line who had driven two and a half hours to come get fish and chips. Then I got mine and discovered that it was in fact the best fish and chips I've ever had. I learned that it was tuna, and that explained it. So thick and juicy. Yum. I can still taste it. Other food expenses: $12 for lattes at the Rusty Cup, and $88 for dinner at Fort George (pizza and salad and cheesecake).

Lodging: $139 at the Selina Commodore 

Dani's daily digest

We made it to Astoria, the official western terminus of the TransAmerica Trail and the second of three endpoints of our bike journey (the first being the Pacific and the last being Portland).

The weather was atmospherically dismal without being actually unpleasant. The state of Washington, just across the river periodically disappeared in shoals of fine rain.

I saw a harbor seal while crossing the Young's Bay Bridge. We looked at each other for 10 seconds before the seal decided "nerp!"and sank below the water.

Upon arriving in Astoria, we drank huge lattes. We then did laundry. While the laundry was drying, Chris got fish-and-chips from Bow-Pickers, which had been recommended to us days and days and miles and miles ago.

By this time, we could check into our room at our hotel (a hiply remodeled old hotel downtown with real wooden doors with transoms and rich hardwood floors and windows that actually open) and take showers. Wearing clean clothing after a good shower? There is nothing like it!

At the Columbia Maritime Museum I learned about numerous dangerous, difficult, uncomfortable careers that were or are essential for society to function that I absolutely could not do. So thanks to all the fishermen and sailors and Columbia River pilots and Coast Guard guardsman for your work. I couldn't do what you do.

We left the museum and walked east along the riverfront trail to look for sea lions. We saw a few of them leaping in and out of the water as they swam downriver, and then we saw at least fifty of them OARF-OARF-OARFing on a pier. They are funny animals. They remind me of dogs at a dog park, or what dogs at a dog park would be like if dogs could barely ambulate. 

[From Chris: Here's a video I shot of dozens of sea lions sitting on the dock and barking enthusiastically:]

We wrapped up our day in Astoria with pizza and beers at Fort George brewing. I was really hungry so it was awesome. 

We could easily have spent another day exploring Astoria (we didn't get to climb the Astoria Column or to walk the neighborhoods or to check out the weird shops other than the cannabis dispensary that I thought was a stationery store), but so it goes.

Tomorrow we're back in full-on bike touring mode after a week of fun and foolery.