We awoke in Astoria and headed to breakfast at the motel. There was an Australian bloke there who was being humorous in an ambiguous way about how we were hogging the toaster. We had only entered the breakfast room moments earlier, but he was now in a queue behind all four of us and wasn't happy. I was toasting a bagel and he insisted that the highest setting would accomplish the job more quickly. I told him that the maximum settings would likely burn the bagel. He reached out and changed the settings. I reached out and changed them back, telling him that I was able to handle the toaster technology. He said: 'don't trust me, eh?' I replied thoughtfully and deliberately: 'No, I don't'.

Being huge film fans, during this trip we have frequently written about movies that we love and have made both overt and obscure references to them in our blog posts. We've even taken pictures of locations where our favourite movies were shot. Over the years, the picturesque city of Astoria has played host to Hollywood many times: Overboard, Short Circuit, The Black Stallion, Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, The Ring and Into the Wild have all been lensed in the vicinity.

However, there is one movie that featured prominently in our respective childhoods that was made largely in Astoria. I am, of course, talking about The Goonies. Directed by Richard Donner and executive produced by Steven Spielberg (during his prolific run during the 80s), The Goonies told the tale of a bunch of Goondock kids set to lose their homes to a real estate development. The Goonies follow a map in search of a treasure that might save their homes and families.

As we were wandering around town, it was not difficult to spot the primary locations from the movie. We located Mikey's Dad's museum almost by accident. Opposite the Flavel House Museum stands the County Jail from which one of the movie's villains, Jake Fratelli, escapes at the beginning of the movie. We found the junction at which Rosalita is disturbed by the Fratelli chase (this is also the Stop N' Snack where the Goonies later go shopping). We were also blown away by Haystack Rock at the beautiful Cannon Beach. These rocks determine the location from which the journey begins for the main characters and the memorable closing scenes.

The highlight, though, was probably finding the Goonie house as inhabited by the Walsh family in the movie. The house is on a private drive and so we had pretty much decided not to intrude when we saw this sign at the foot of the drive: 

Thanks to the owners for being cool enough to give movie fans a Goonie adventure of their own. Mikey's house is situated opposite Data's house in the movie and this is the case in reality too. The window from which Data glides on a cord accompanied by the James Bond theme is still adjacent to Mikey's window today. None of us were willing to carry out the Truffle Shuffle on camera, but as Dale happened to be wearing his signature hat, we couldn't resist quoting at least a few lines:

Astoria was really fun and is such a quaint, memorable place. We enjoyed some locally brewed beer at the Wet Dog Café before heading out towards Seattle. The scenery is stunning on the 101. So far, the Pacific Northwest is just breathtaking. At one point, I had to stop for a family of ducks to cross.

After a couple of hours, we hit some heavy traffic. Apparently, the Seattle Mariners are playing at home this evening and Tim McGraw is also performing in town. We figured that sitting in traffic for hours was a waste of time, so we have stopped overnight in Tacoma. The good news is that we've officially entered Washington, the Evergreen state. Washington is the final state on the Crossing the States road trip. We'll head in to Seattle on Saturday morning and spend the weekend there before we fly to London on Monday. It's nearly all over, we can't believe it!

We started the day with a shower that had only one setting: 'flay'. By 9am we were on the road. By 11am, the choice of religious radio broadcasting or country music was making us all drowsy, so we stopped for Big Macs. Dale had a peanut butter McFlurry. That stuff is like catnip to this kid.

In early afternoon, we passed Eugene and arrived in Portland. It's a pretty city. Like most places out here, it's pretty sparse in terms of traffic, people and action, but we enjoyed wandering around the city centre and picking up retro memorabilia in the thrift shops. On the way in and out of Portland, the weather was positively biblical. There were hailstones the size of Cadillacs.

The highlight of Portland for us, however, was Powell's Books. A book store rumoured to be the largest in the world. Four floors of books stretching as far as the eye can see. Dale was enchanted by this magic forest of paper and disappeared into it for a long time. When he returned, he looked exactly the same, but we had all aged seven years.

In late afternoon, we drove another hundred or so miles to Astoria, the beautiful coastal city situated near the mouth of the Columbia River. We had a fabulous meal on the water front and checked into a motel. Before heading to Seattle tomorrow, I imagine we'll indulge our 80's movie nostalgia on these here Goondocks.

We left San Francisco this morning and, having stopped briefly at the Golden Gate Bridge, continued on though Sausalito and Marin on our way to Portland, Oregon. Following signs for Napa, we came upon Vallejo, the old stomping ground of the serial killer known as the Zodiac. Signs for Lake Berryessa gave me a little chill. It was raining, so we didn't stop until Williams, California. For lunch, I indulged in a Triple Whopper Meal at Burger King. As you'll see from the photo, it was quite large. The dime is included for scale.

Soon after Williams, we passed through the City of Shasta Lake. Sounds like one of those 'choose your own adventure' books. We stopped one other time during the day at the Weed Rest Area and were attacked by giant killer seagulls from hell.

Before long, we had reached the Pacific Northwest. The views on I-5 are really something. During the day, Dale and I listened to a lot of country music on the radio. Our favourite was a song that features the chorus "Ain't nothin' wrong with a hard hat and a hammer. God bless the working' man." Dale and I like both kinds: country and western. We entered Oregon expecting to stop in Medford. However, after 400 miles, we eventually quit at Grants Pass and found a motel. Here are some scenes from the day: