Welcome to the Goondocks

NOTE: Turn up your speakers to hear "The Goonies R Good Enough" by Cyndi Lauper... And if you want to see a larger version of any of the pictures, just click on it.

For those of you who don't know, the cult classic The Goonies was mostly filmed in Astoria, Oregon. As a huge fan of this movie, I cannot possibly reside in Oregon without sojourning to this Mecca for children of the 1980s. So today I hauled Luna on what I thought would be a 8 hour day trip to Astoria and Cannon Beach in Northwest Oregon to see the sites. You may be thinking "Why in Buddha's name would she waste all that gas driving to see something so lame?" Well, part of the fun IS the drive and seeing everything along the way. Also, if you're asking yourself that question, you just don't get the Goonies.



First of all, Luna was not happy on the first leg of the trip. I think she figured we were just going to the dog park, and when we hit the highway, she let it be known this was NOT what she had in mind for her Saturday.











After four hours of driving, we arrived in Astoria. It is an ADORABLE town. Right on the Columbia River, the houses are all uniquely painted and scattered throughout the hillside. I loved it!





I easily found the Goonies house. To get to it, I had to park my car on the street and walk up a small hill of a driveway that led to several houses. I was disappointed to discover they had someone there working on their house, and the van was blocking the perfect picture angle! So I had to be a gawking tourist and stand directly in front of the house and surreptitiously take pictures. These are the best I could do!


















And a view of the Goondocks from the house!












The school from Kindergarten Cop:










Then I headed to Ecola State Park outside of Cannon Beach. This is also where part of the movie was filmed, along with the ending of Point Break (Keanu Reeves...). Most of the bike scene (where Brand gets pushed off of Data's sisters bike) was filmed in the entrance drive to the State Park. Probably one of the windiest, tree-heavy roads I've ever been on...but very cool! I really, really enjoyed this state park. I look forward to going again to go whale watching (apparently a prime spot), sea lion watching, and more beach exploration! From the awesome vantage point, I could see the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, the Sea Lion Rock (a natural arch rock where a myriad of animal life thrives), Haystock Rock (see below) and plenty of fun trails to hike :-).










A view from the driftwood. It was very misty.












Seagulls on the Sea Lion Rock




























Luna was not interested in having her Sea Portrait taken.























A great place to soak up some rays....when the sun is out.













The next stop was Cannon Beach, an absolutely ADORABLE town. It was definitely a tourist type place, with tons of little shops and cafes. It kind of made me wish I hadn't spent all of my money on gas to get there! But I can always go back. The houses were cute. It was in a Tsunami Hazard Zone (as much of Hwy 101 is). Despite that, I would definitely love to vacation there some time in the future.




I was able to get a photo of Haystack Rock. This rock is famous from the movie when Mikey holds up the coin and determines they are in the right spot for treasure hunting.







After that I was pretty much Goonie-d out. But I still had about a 4.5 hour drive home. Sadly, when I went into Walgreens to buy batteries for my camera, I came back to discover Luna had eaten the drumstick bone and chicken wing bone from my lunch that I forgot to throw away. As of yet there haven't been any problems... So she was pretty lazy for the rest of the trip and just laid in her bed in the backseat.




I stopped at a viewpoint and got a couple of pretty snapshots of the sun filtering through some clouds and shedding some light on the ocean. As dark and gray as it was, it really brightened up those spots.










The rest of the drive home went smoothly, with some patches of rain, lots of dark, curvy oceanside roads, and great Sirius radio music. A road trip to people traveling through Oregon...instead of counting out-of-state license plates or slug bugs, count the number of drive-thru espresso shops. You WILL be astounded. I didn't...I might be dorky enough to go on this daylong venture, but I'm not dorky enough to have a espresso shop counting contest with myself...


Now...I might watch The Goonies..my coworker lent me her copy!