Cadets John W. Beal, left, Kyle E. Stubbs, center, and Trent A. Meyers pose on the deck of the USCGS Eagle Thursday, June 12, 2008. Stubbs, a native of Newcastle, Wash., will end his tour on the Eagle before Tall Ships Tacoma, but will be there in spirit, he says.
Photo by JOE BARRENTINE
Story by KATHLEEN MERRYMAN

Astoria, Ore. - There were no lines to tour U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle Thursday evening in Astoria, just a steady stream of people delighted to have the chance to visit America’s Tall Ship.

Cadets Kyle Stubbs, 19, of Newcastle, and Trent Meyers of Indianapolis, Ind., manned the dock. They welcomed families, seniors, Coast guard veterans and tourists delighted to be in town at the same time as the famous ship. They assured all that they were welcome, and that there was no charge to tour the ship.

While Stubbs and Meyers greeted, other cadets in uniform shared pizza parlor flyers. The dialed their cell phones and tried to negotiate to have pies delivered to the city dock. It was surprisingly frustrating. They were assigned to the ship for the evening. They could not just wander off in search of a Hawaiian with extra Canadian bacon.
When they dock in Tacoma, they said, it would be a fine thing to have great pizza readily available, a great thing to allow pizza delivery people access to the ship.

“Pizza is a big thing cadets are fans of,” Stubbs said. “We don’t get it on ship.”

Cadets with shore leave waved goodbye as they set out to explore Astoria. It’s not a city that specializes in night life. At 10 p.m., groups of them were still walking about, looking at shop windows, enjoying the chance to walk more than 300 feet in one direction without having to turn around.

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Stubbs and Meyers are leaving Eagle in Astoria, and a new set of their cadet classmates will board for the sail to Victoria and the passage south with Tall Ships.

They won’t be in Tacoma, but they know what their shipmates will want.

“Movies,” said Meyers. “You hear about these great movies that open while you’re at sea. We would appreciate the chance to see them.”

Sports, the two agreed. You don’t get much baseball on a Tall Ship.

“Mount Rainier,” Stubbs said. “We have a lot of people from the Midwest who have never seen a mountain like Rainier.”

People will have leaves long enough to give them time to get to Rainier, even stay overnight. Transportation will be the hitch.

Ditto for anything beyond a brisk walk from the festival. The crew and cadets will want to know how to get to Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, hiking trails, theaters, stores and restaurants. They’ll also want to know which ones are the best and the most affordable. If they ask you for recommendations, the cadets said, don’t be shy.

There’s one more thing for which they yearn: Hotel rooms.

Friday morning at Astoria’s Red Lion Inn, Ben McElroy of Pennsylvania, Merritt Anderson of Alabama, Mark Tatara of Illinois and Cori Mikkalo of Oregon chowed down on the complimentary breakfast. Sausage, waffles, oatmeal, breakfast burritos. The works.

The 19-year-olds had been among the cadets who ate everything on Eagle on the sail up from San Diego. The galley was bare. The only thing left, they said, was a case of amaretto coffee creamer. They hate amaretto coffee creamer. After their last skimpy lunch on board, they were delighted to spend three and a half hours re-stocking the ship.

Breakfast, however, was not why they’d splurged on the hotel. They’d done it for the showers and the comfy, comfy pillowtop beds, and the television, and the chance to sleep in and just relax. Aboard Eagle, a three-minute shower is the rule, and cadets sleep 12 to 14 to a room on thin mattresses.

Eagle is a fine experience, they said, and a good start on serving their country well. But sometimes, it’s good to be ashore.