Down the Oregon Coast...
Sunday it was time to hit the road again and start heading south. Shoopie left as well to head back home. It was great fun to spend much of this trip with family. We look forward to visiting with more friends before heading back home. The drive along 101 through Washington was pretty and, after about three hours, we got to the Columbia River at the Washington Oregon border. There the Astoria-Megler Bridge crosses the river to get into Astoria, OR. The bridge is mostly close to water level and, at 4.1 miles long, is the longest continuous truss bridge in the United States and the second longest in the world.
We stopped in Astoria for lunch and stumbled on a large Sunday market in the downtown area. We wandered through the market looking for must-have treasures and did some liquor tasting, fudge tasting, and lots of window shopping. We had some taco-truck tacos and a beer at a local brewery for lunch. Finally, we went to a candy store and ended up getting some ice cream for dessert. We enjoyed that at the waterfront looking over the Columbia River. As a nod to the constant reminders from Shoopie, we tried to get a drive-by picture of the Goonie’s House but found that you must walk a considerable distance to get to it…maybe next time. After a beautiful drive farther down the Oregon coast, we arrived at Pleasant Valley RV Park near Tillamook at about 5pm.
When in Tillamook, one must visit the cheese factory so that was on our agenda for Monday. We started at the Blue Heron French Cheese Company where we sampled a few types of brie (and bought one); a very cute place that caters to tourists (lots of pretty sunflowers in their garden). We then went to the Tillamook Creamery where we did the self-guided tour to observe the cheesemaking process. It is incredible how much cheese goes down the assembly line. The plant receives about 1.6 million pounds of milk every day!
The highlight of our visit was the ice cream tasting tour. That tour started by sampling an ice cream bar and then we learned about the details of how the ice cream is made. We went through a few exercises to see how well we can discern tastes and determine the relative cocoa content of several chocolate samples. Of course, the whole event wrapped up with us getting to sample four different ice cream varieties. We each were served about a half-carton of ice cream but could not finish it.
After gorging ourselves on ice cream, we drove farther north to Rockaway Beach and enjoyed a beer and a snack at Pelican Bay Brewing. We walked through some shops and then went to the beach where we enjoyed a long walk. A quick stop for gas and some groceries and then it was back to camp.
A bit of a slower start on Tuesday and we were off to meet Randy, a former coworker, for lunch at the Fish Peddler Restaurant in Bay City (just north of Tillamook). It was great to spend some time with him and get caught up. We last saw him on the way home from Glacier two years ago. Time flies when you’re having fun and we finally got up from our lunch about three hours later. While we were at lunch, we got “ducked” again! After saying “goodbye” to Randy, we hit a few antique stores before returning to camp. We did a little prep for our departure tomorrow and enjoyed a grilled hot dog and mac-n-cheese dinner.
Tomorrow, we get serious about heading home with our next stop being in Coos Bay…
