Vacation, Part 3

Ok, enough “culture” and “high-class” and on to the real stuff we came to see…the home of The Goonies!

Our next stop was Astoria, Oregon.

First, let me say that it was really nice to be back in the United States. There was just something different about being in Canada that was a bit, well, weird. It felt good to be back on American soil.

Astoria is a town of about 10,000 people. They were very friendly. And quite tolerant of our Goonie hunt. Some other movies that were filmed there are Kindergarten Cop and Free Willy. Yeah, I know. Who’d have thought that? We also found out that the proper pronunciation is “ASS-toria,” not “AH-storia” as we had been led to believe. Semantics. Funny, funny semantics.

And let me just tell you now, if you’re not already bored to tears with this never-ending vacation slideshow and if you’ve never seen The Goonies or don’t know what I’m talking about, you will find no joy whatsoever in most of these photos. You have been warned.

(You might also need to be warned about my use of run-on sentences, but that’s for another time and another disclaimer.)

Lovely Astoria, first thing in the morning.There was a great walking/jogging/bike path down the waterfront, all the way across town. As we were headed for The Goonie House, we decided we’d start walking and catch the trolley as it came by. It did, but it was going the wrong way. So we walked all the way across town and back again.

Here’s some old dock pilings along the waterfront. Remember these guys? We spent way too long laughing at them.Oh, and I’m pretty sure at some point along the waterfront, we saw a guy we thought might be Matt Foley, living in a van down by the river. For real.

This is the museum featured in The Goonies. Mikey and Brand’s Dad worked there. And in real life it’s a…museum. But as portrayed in the movie, it is not, in fact, down the hill from Mikey’s house. It’s all the way across town.The jail seen in the first scenes of the movie, where Mama Fratelli breaks her boy out.This is it…we finally made it to the Goonie house! It’s a private residence. But apparently the owners are used to folks coming to gawk at their house. If I were them, I’d charge admission and let the thing pay for itself.     Walking up the driveway.Aaaahhhhhhh. Here it is, in all its glory. I tried to get Husband to do the Truffle Shuffle, but it was a no-go. Self-portrait at the Goonie house. View of Astoria from the Goonie house. On our way back toward Chunk’s bowling alley, we saw the Kindergarten Cop school.Here’s Chunk’s bowling alley! The sign in the bowling alley window…they are proud of their Goonie heritage!A scene from the opening credits, when Chunk smashes his pizza and strawberry shake up against the window while watching the Fratelli family’s police chase. Me, not smashing anything up against the window in the same spot. Alas, the bowling alley no longer serves pizza and strawberry shakes (if it ever actually did), but we had a nice lunch there of chicken fingers, fries, and root beer. I think Chunk would’ve approved.We enjoyed our time in Astoria. It was a great place to visit. Last stop, San Francisco!