Barges and gliders

that ferry guests to and from town under the command of drivers like Garner.

Another fish cannery was reimagined as a brewery, Buoy Beer Co., and is now booming. Bridgewater Bistro, packed on a Saturday night, hints at its roots as a former cannery boathouse through its giant, soaring wood beams and scarred, shiny Douglas fir floors.

Other investments added up incrementally. Over the past 35 years, the Port of Astoria has spent more than $10 million in pier improvements to attract and retain cruise ships. In 2018, 25 vessels are expected to bring more than 44,000 visitors.

Since 1998, the community has raised roughly $9 million to restore the 1920s-era Liberty Theatre, now home to concerts, plays, public forums and more.

One of the area’s biggest tourist draws, Fort Clatsop, is itself a product of rebuilding and community cooperation. This was the site where Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and their party endured a wet, hostile winter in 1805-06.

A replica of the original log structure burned in 2005. Fourteen months later, thanks to the work of hundreds of volunteers, a newly constructed fort reopened.

Here, park ranger Sally Freeman and her peers pass summers in period clothing — moccasins, hand-sewn elk-skin trousers and a cotton or linen shirt — and usher visitors to the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park on a two-century journey back in time.

“Lewis and Clark had survived the snow and ice of a North Dakota winter, but they complained

We interspersed our history lessons with a leisurely walk through downtown and its shops, sampling craft beer and grub at both Buoy and its well-established predecessor, the Fort George Brewery + Public House. We savored a memorable dinner at a newer entrant downtown, Carruthers Restaurant.

We biked along the waterfront, under the studious gaze of a bald eagle perched on a power pole.

We watched from our balcony at the Cannery Pier hotel as giant barges drifted by on the Columbia, packed with wheat bound for Asia. We meandered through three-plus blocks of street vendors hawking produce, crafts and more at the Astoria Sunday Market.

And we did what we always do when we visit Astoria — indeed, what practically everyone does. We drove to the top of Coxcomb Hill and plopped down a dollar each for a balsa-wood glider at the Astoria Column gift shop.

We climbed the circular staircase to the column’s observation deck and launched our gliders into the wind. They carved circles in the air, casting swift shadows on the history enshrined on the column itself.