The 363-mile coast is dotted with small villages plus a few medium-sized cities that by and large still are blue-collar fishing towns and seaports, not yet tarted up for tourism. A downside: It might rain in the summer. It will rain in the winter.

The drive from Portland to Astoria along the Columbia River takes about two hours. Astoria itself at the river's mouth is a town some visitors call quaint, but most residents don't.

A steep hillside of Victorian-era houses looms over what amounts to a riverfront main street lined with small, family owned businesses. It has become a port of call for a few cruise ships.

It is unpretentious yet it has good restaurants and museums. Not to miss: the Columbia River Maritime Museum, open daily. You will learn why the nearby river's mouth is called the "Pacific Graveyard."

Nearby are the diminishing remains of the Peter Iredale, a four-masted barque that sits where it ran aground in 1906. There are other shipwrecks on the coast, some appearing and vanishing with the tidal patterns and winds.

Also just south of Astoria is Fort Clatsop (follow the signs) where the Lewis and Clark expedition spent the soggy winter of 1805-1806. It's part of the national park system now. It contains a replica of their fort and an interpretive center and bookstore. Archaeologists still work the site from time to time.

Farther south in Newport the historic waterfront district still keeps at least some of its old aura.

There are some good restaurants and shops featuring work of regional artisans. Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center across the bay offers user-friendly movies, exhibits and displays of coastal marine life, including a live but wet "petting zoo" of marine creatures and educational walking tours of the fishing fleet docks. Donations are encouraged.

Nearby is the highly rated Oregon Coast Aquarium.

There are nine 19th-century lighthouses along the coast, some open to the public and many working, although automated.

Some sites are favored by surfers (with wetsuits — the water is brutally cold). Great white sharks are not unheard of.

Several ports offer salmon or other fishing charters. Newport provides boat trips to watch gray whales not far off the coast.

Between there and Florence 50 miles south is some of the more spectacular scenery on the coast. South of Florence is the National Dunes Recreation Area, 40 miles of desertlike sand mountains. For a slow climb up and a steep romp down, try Jesse Honeyman State Park just south of Florence.

The southern end of the coast, too, is spectacular, if more isolated. Many visitors to Gold Beach take the daylong Rogue River mail boat trip upriver to Agness and back. Boats have been taking mail to the isolated region since 1895. Today, two companies offer jet-boat trips up the river, usually from May to October. Jerry's Rogue Jets and Mail Boat Hydro-Jets are easy to find. Rental-car agencies have various drop-off options, if not farther down the coast in California then at cities inland.