It was really beautiful. I grew up in Longview, Washington...and the river is owned by the port and the lumber and paper mills....you have no sense of being on the Columbia...although we used to go to Cathlamet, etc. a fair bit....it was quite interesting seeing my home town from its river perspective....ugly as all getout I must say but it did have the biggest lumber mills in the world at one time...the Maritime museum in Astoria is always fun to visit...they are in the process of remodeling and expanding and it should be much better...open to the river more....I am applying for just a little weekend job selling hot dogs or whatever on the boat....mg