Today I went to see Mt St Helens volcano, which is about 55 miles east of Castle Rock where I slept last night.  It was a little out of the way but it seemed worth it because I knew I would not have another opportunity to see it anytime soon.  So I went there and headed for the visitor’s center.  They were showing a 15 minute movie on the volcano and its last eruption in May, 1980 but somehow I managed to sleep through half of it.  The stuff on display was cool and also there was some smoke coming out of the top of the volcano.  Nobody else seemed alarmed so I figured that no one thought the thing was going to blow.

    After Mt St Helens I headed toward the coast of Oregon.  I stopped in Astoria, which is supposedly the oldest town in America west of the Missouri River.  Its located at the mouth of the Columbia river where it dumps into the ocean and has a pretty decent fishing industry.  I stopped at a bar/ restaurant and got some salmon clam chowder and fried haddock.  The fried haddock was really juicy and tasted great (just like anything that’s fried).  Content with my meal I got in the car and headed further down the coast.  I drove through another cool little coastal town, Seaside, which seemed pretty busy with the summer tourists.  Next I started heading back inland towards Portland where I’ve stopped for the night.  I just went to see some comedy in the bar under the hotel.  It was pretty bad.  I think I laughed more when the bar tender told me that my pint was only $2.50 than I did throughout all the comedians I saw.  I headed toward another bar after that was supposed to have live music every night.  Its name was the Candlelight and when I got there I sat down at the bar just in time to hear the musicians say there were taking a break (”short” as they described it).  Well, the break was long, long enough to have a few beers and four tacos anyway.  I wasn’t that hungry when I walked into the place but when the bar tender said the tacos were two for a dollar I quickly became starving.  So I ate, drank and waited for the band to come back on but by the time they did come back I had lost interest.  I listened to a few songs then exited and returned home.  Tomorrow is another day.  I’ll continue to head east on the Oregon Trail which I picked up along the coast earlier today.