High on Coxscomb Hill sits an obelisk wreathed with a pictorial history book. One can spiral around the base and recreate events from the arrival of Robert Gray in his ship the "Columbia Rediviva" to the establishment of John Jacob Astor's fur-trading post. Or one can step through the doors and mount 164 steps to the top and look out on the present.
Below lies the town of Astoria, gingerbread houses in tidy, neat rows, each with a view. The 4.1 mile Astoria-Megler bridge stretches north to unite the coasts of Oregon and Washington. Beyond, Cape Disappointment and the Columbia River Bar invite adventurers to follow the flow as the mighty Columbia gushes forth to meet the Pacific Ocean. We did too, and as the sun set with a crimson glow the Sea Bird crossed the tidal bore taking us briefly to salinity, a journey completed from the mountains to the sea.
