“I think you’re overdoing the atmosphere,” Gov. Ted Kulongoski joked as rain pelted the audience at the kick-off of the “Destination: The Pacific” Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemoration.

An event 200 years in the making began with “horriable” weather that continued through much of the weekend, but didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of locals and visitors who took part in honoring the explorers’ famous trek to the ocean.

“We have definitely experienced Lewis and Clark kind of weather the last five days,” Cyndi Mudge, “Destination” executive director, said Sunday.

Despite sometimes heavy downpours and strong wind, attendance at the events has been strong, and feedback from visitors positive, she said.

The opening ceremonies Friday at Fort Stevens State Park were followed by the opening of the “Festival of the Pacific” at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds, the “Ocian in View” lecture series, first-person history at Fort Clatsop, gatherings by two local Indian tribes and Sunday’s “Consider the Columbia” event on the Astoria Bridge.

The Bicentennial continues at noon today with the official dedication of the Fort to Sea Trail, followed by Tuesday’s re-enactment of the explorers’ arrival at the mouth of the river at Chinook County Park.

The opening ceremony was hit by regular squalls that sent many of the estimated 2,000 onlookers scurrying for cover under tents, camera platforms and even the fort’s historic concrete bunkers. But the wind and rain didn’t stop the pageantry that wove historical, tribal and military themes together in the Veterans Day event, which included music from a U.S. Army band, traditional Native American singers and drummers and a procession of American Indian military vets carrying the flags of their tribes along with an American flag that was flown in Iraq.

“Our American Indian brethren took great pride in serving in our armed forces,” said Joe Scovell, chairman of the Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes.

The former fort was once the site of a Clatsop Indian village whose members traded with Lewis and Clark during the explorers’ stay at Fort Clatsop during the winter of 1805-06.

“It was in this area that Lewis and Clark met our people,” Scovell said. “It was a friendly meeting.”

Kulongoski, who appeared with Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire, called the Bicentennial “one of the greatest moments in Oregon cultural history.” The former Marine joined a procession of vets, Indian and non-Indian, who circled the audience in a traditional Native American honor dance.

The governor, who has raised concerns about the heavy reliance the U.S. military is placing on National Guard and reserve troops in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, pointed out that proportionately more Guard soldiers are serving on the front lines than in any past conflict, and noted that next month he will welcome back from overseas duty two Oregon units he deployed 18 months ago, and next year will send 700 more Guard members to active duty in Afghanistan.

“Never in history has so much been asked of our citizen soldiers,” he said. “My pride in the National Guard soldiers … knows no bounds. But in the conflict today, their families are carrying on the burden alone – this is morally wrong.

“Send them the right message about the future – that we are all in this together,” he added.

The weather was calmer Sunday morning for the “Consider the Columbia” event on the Astoria Bridge, but the stiff wind and fog that did appear were enough to scrub some elements of the program.

The event featured several hundred people assembling on the bridge for a ceremonial pouring of waters from four rivers on the Lewis and Clark Trail – the Mississippi, Missouri, Snake and Clearwater – into the Columbia in a symbolic joining of the five waterways.

About 500 people rode buses onto the bridge, which was closed to traffic for the morning event. Two Coast Guard helicopters were supposed to drop flares at significant sites around the area, including Station Camp and Smith Point, but one was busy on a rescue call while the other was grounded by the weather.

Just east of the bridge, the charter fishing boat Shamrock carried a small group which watched as Robert Archibald, president of the National Council of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, and Allen Pinkham Sr. of the Nez Perce tribe, emptied the water from the four rivers into the Columbia.

“The main thing was getting people out on the bridge, but it was definitely an experimental program,” Mudge said. “Some things worked great, and some didn’t.”

The weather was no factor at the Festival of Pacific, where music, kids’ activities and food, arts and crafts vendors were offered indoors.

Big draws were the Oregon Zoo’s birds of prey program, which included a bald eagle, turkey vulture and other raptors, and the botanical garden, where local flora noted in Lewis and Clark’s journals ranging from mushrooms to towering trees were on display.

Many people, including locals, were surprised at the many uses that Native Americans found for common local plants like salal, said exhibit organizer Teresa Retzlaff. “We’re not just focused on what Lewis and Clark saw,” she said.

The “Merry to the Fiddle” concerts Friday and Sunday at the Liberty Theater proved to be extremely popular, Mudge said, and another surprise hit of the weekend was the “Hiking Through History” walk Saturday on the Discovery Trail between Ilwaco, Wash., and Long Beach. An estimated 400 people turned out to hike the new trail.

A healthy turnout was expected for today’s dedication of the Fort to Sea Trail, the five-mile pathway linking Fort Clatsop with the ocean at Sunset Beach.