Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Seaside, Oregon to Lincoln City, Oregon
Out and away early, lots to see. General places of interest here, on this day, are the lighthouses of Oregon, particularly Tillamook, and the Tillamook Cheese Factory (a must-see if only for the ice-cream) and the Tillamook Air Museum that was well recommended to us.
First on the roadway south was to be the Cheese Factory, just north of Tillamook about an hour or so drive south of Seaside. Finding it was not hard, this is a major attraction rivaling Disneyland (almost) in its presence beside the road. We parked, entered the building, and took an extremely interesting self-guided tour that explained the history and business of cheese-making in Tillimook. The viewing area overlooked the production and wrapping lines below, and we watched the automated packaging process. On the other side of the viewing area on the second floor was the cheese making operation, larger by far but not as dynamic as the curds were forming and ageing in their sealed vats away from our prying eyes. Very interesting, regardless. Then downstairs to the giftshop (a cow mug and some cow napkins) then to the ice-cream line (Oregon Cherry for me and mint chocolat for Jan), then to the seating area with Bob and Celine to consume the cones.
After that, out the door, exit the parking lot, and southward ho looking for the Mears Island lighthouse. This we found easily about five minutes later, part of a circle tour around a senic part of the coast. We got there without trouble, except for smelling Oregon's derrierre (aka dairy air, as a large pump and nozzle combination was spraying a nearby field with the 'lagoon mix' from a local dairy farm. Very rich in nutrients, particularly Nitrogen, but smelly.) Found one of the few remaining parking spots in the area of the lighthouse, and hiked about 600 yards down to it. An excellent tour, and gift shop, and Bob bought us a book called 'American Lighthouses' as a memory of our trip, very kind and thoughtful. Unfortunatly, no word anywhere of the fate of 'Terrible Tillie', the Tillamook lighthouse immortalized for me in a chapter of 'The Sea Around Us' by Rachel Carson. Tillie is seems has been abandoned now for many years and is no longer active as a beacon on the coast. This fate is shared by many, many other lights in the storm as serious mariners and coastal navigators all have GPS technology and accurate marine charts to aid them now. After a nice visit in the warm and bright sunshine, and a thousand pictures taken between the four of us, we hiked back up to the parking area.
The last attraction of the day for us was the air museum, which we found easily enough at the south end of Tillamook. The museum's aircraft are housed in a WWII era blimp hanger, one of the largest wooden buildings in the world without mid-span supports. As to the aircraft in the museum, it is a veritable who's-who of American combat aircraft. See this link for the list: (http://www.tillamookair.com/html/air_craft_list.html) and visit their website to get more details. For anyone interested in this era of aircraft a visit here is like a Catholic's visit to the Pope's sanctum sanctorum. I can't describe it, but standing next to a MiG 17 with a hand on the wing, or taking pictures of the cockpit of an Me109 while standing next to it, rubbing against it, camera-hand through the window, inside ... Unbelievable. I finally ran out of camera batteries and only then could Bob and I leave. Celine and Jan were getting restive in the coffee shop and were ready to send the cops in to get us. But we arrived just in time, then Jan bought me a museam mug, and then we left.
