Back On The Oregon Coast

After a week inland, I was ready to head back to the sea, well, the Pacific Ocean. I just love the ocean and never get tired watching it.

We are currently at a 1000 Trails park, Pacific City, which is located just north of the city with the same name. The park is nice if you like hills, and I mean some steep ones! After searching, we found a full hookup site with view of the southern sky for the dish and sneak peeks of the ocean through the trees. We are now set up and staying here until June 15th. At that time we will move to Tualatin, Oregon, just south of Portland. Our granddaughter-in-law is graduating, getting her Masters, so we are going back for that.

Yesterday dawned a bright beautiful day with clear skies, full sun and decent temperatures although there was a coolness in the ocean breeze. Since the weatherman is calling for rain over the weekend, we figured it was a perfect day to explore north of us.

We started out for the Tillamook Cheese factory in Tillamook, OR. This factory has a self guided tour which was very interesting and informative. There are windows to look through down onto the factory floor. We saw cheese curds being pressed into 40 lb blocks and sealed for storage (to age), and two kinds of cheese being cut from 40 lb blocks and packaged for shipment to stores. It was very interesting to watch the operation. Of course there was cheese sampling and since they also make ice cream, sampling of that as well. The cheese sampling was disappointing. There were only four kinds of cheese out of who knows how many different kinds they make, to sample. When we visited Cabot Cheese factory in Vermont last summer, they had just about every kind of cheese they made out to sample - much better! I did buy some white very sharp cheddar which is my favorite for snacking.

After finishing up in Tillamook we decided to drive on north to Seaside and check out the 1000 Trails park there.

One thing that we noticed on this drive is that it is very different from the drive along the southern coast in that you are driving inland more and see very little of the Pacific. You do pass through some quaint fishing villages and towns that sit by a bay and just every now and then you get a peek at the Pacific. It was an interesting drive anyway.

The park at Seaside looks nice, and flat! I emphasize the flat because most all the parks we been to on the coast have been hilly. After driving through and check for the best sites in the park we drove into town hunting for a restaurant that was recommended - Norma's. Not hard to find and I had the first crab cakes I've had in over a year! Ummm, delicious. Dean, being the landlubber he is, had a BLT - to each his own - LOL.

After having a great meal we started the 58 mile trip back to Pacific City with a stop in Tillamook at the Safeway for some grub - this is the closest grocery store to us right now, about 20 miles from the park.

As I mentioned above, it is to rain all day - 80% chance, and the skies really look heavy this morning, so I think we will be spending the day just relaxing, maybe go check out the clubhouse etc. There is a nice enclosed swimming pool here, but doubt that we will use it. No one wants to see ME in a bathing suit - especially ME!!!

Click on this link for the pictures of this journey:

http://picasaweb.google.com/SchultzTravelPhotos/2007_06_08OregonCoastPacificCityToSeaside

Till next time.......