On the next day, when I went up for breakfast, the ship had docked at Astoria, Oregon.
Astoria has many, many volunteers - they were meeting the boat, working on the trolley and volunteering downtown.
I was talking to the volunteers who were meeting the ship, and they were telling me about a private house full of antiques, and they told me that Holland America had a brochure of this house at their tourist booth. They told me to to buy a bus ticket to go to the house. Otherwise, I should walk up a block, and take their trolley going up and down the town. I decided to go to the house, so I bought a bus ticket for $7.
I had lots of time to go and see the house, so when the bus stopped downtown, I got off and walked around. There was an old theatre downtown which is being fixed up - there is no charge, just a donation box. Well worth going to see. And the bathrooms are on the second floor, so again, well worth it to go upstairs. I also went to the Deals store - a store we don't have in Canada - and bought 3 pairs of socks for $6, and love them all.
As I was walking around downtown, the trolley track was right there, and I jumped on the trolley. You took the trolley one way, got up and reversed the seats, and faced forwards again for the ride back. The trolley ride was $2 - and I think that if you paid $5, then you could ride it all day. Neat little ride.
I asked the train volunteer about the house, and she said she would phone and find out. After about 15 minutes, she told me that I would have to walk uphill for quite a way.
When I got back to the ship, I went to the tourist bus office, and asked them how to get to the house. They told me that I would have to walk 5 blocks uphill from the bus stop. I said that I had only bought the ticket to go to the house, and they immediately refunded my money - they were very polite and helpful.
