Astoria Garden Tour ’13: prequel

July 13: Before going to Astoria, I had to take my usual Discover Ilwaco photos at the Saturday market.  Somehow this involved a certain amount of delay and dithering, like buying a birdhouse from The Wood Elf out of sympathy because his truck had broken down and he was unable to bring his larger goods.  He has excellent garden furniture when he can get it here, and I had fallen in love with the crooked roofed birdhouse anyway.

Then…the bridge to Astoria, Oregon.  I was feeling that we were running a bit late so it followed that we got stuck in the longest traffic delay I had experienced.  I became rather anxious…even though I prefer crossing the bridge when traffic is slowed by bridge work delays.

waiting

The tide was low…

looking west toward the ocean

and birds were waiting, too.

view from the bridge (telephoto)

We finally got to the ticket sales tent at 11:45.   As always happens in Astoria, beautiful houses caught my eye before I even had a ticket in hand.

by where we parked

and next door

And here is the comforting sight of the ticket tent with tickets still for sale…

ticket sales

always next to this beautiful house on the hill

with a view of the Columbia River down the hill

sweet peas on the ticket table

We drove to the east end of Astoria and up another hill to find the first garden.  (I remember what a struggle that was before we got our Garmin.)  Across the street from the first garden stood a stunning home for sale…plenty of room for a garden there.

tower house

And now…let’s start to tour!