Wednesday, Thursday

Wednesday and Thursday of our trip were fun days. *This is a really long post, fair warning*

On Wednesday we decided to take a drive up to Tillamook and visit The Cheese Factory. So after breakfast we took off going north up the coast highway. It was a GORGEOUS day for a drive along the ocean. The sun was shining and it actually looked like summer on the coast. To get to Tillamook you branch off slightly east away from the ocean going more inland. It is a really pretty drive and we saw lots of neat little houses. The thing that struck me the most about all of the little towns we went through from Lincoln City on, was that I saw more American Flags displayed on homes and businesses than anywhere I've ever seen. Honestly, almost every single place had an American Flag mounted or hanging. It was awesome!

We stopped at a little park about 5 miles out of Tillamook and had lunch we had packed in our cooler. The kids enjoyed running around after being in the car for a while.

When we arrived at the cheese factory, it was packed as usual with hardly a parking space to be found. We weren't two steps inside the door when Kendle insisted I take a picture of her and the cows:

The bottom level of the visitors center is made up of a gift shop, a little tour with information about the factory, a little market area where you can buy cheese and other food items, a cafe and fudge counter, and the ice cream court which was the #1 reason the place was swamped. Fresh ice cream = happy people. We took Kendle through the tour portion downstairs and then headed up the elevator to the second level where you could observe the factory operations through big windows. It's amazing to see how fast the people working there have to be and how quickly everything gets cut and packaged and sent on its way. There are little videos you can watch about how everything is made and processed and it's pretty interesting. They also have a smaller ice cream station and we outsmarted the big crowds by getting our ice cream up there and having a bench all to ourselves to eat it on.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I have dreams about Tillamook's fresh German Chocolate Cake ice cream. It's heaven. I haven't been able to find it in the stores, (plus it wouldn't have the same fresh taste) so I have to rely on eating it every couple of years when we visit Tillamook. No words can describe how much I love that ice cream. Riley and the kids enjoyed some huge ice cream cones and we all were very content.

After that we headed back down stairs to look through the cheeses and specialty food items. We ended up getting some great stuff, but my favorite purchase of the day was this:

These make the best Pumpkin Muffins, so I had to stock up while I was there. I'll save them for a chilly fall morning.

After we left the cheese factory we headed to the Tillamook Country Smoker so Riley could stock up on his years supply of jerky and beef sticks. I tell you, it does not take much to keep him happy.

After that we went to the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum. Riley's family had some deep roots in Tillamook so we thought we would check it out. We were pleasantly surprised at what a cool place it was. One of our best surprises was finding this:

We found some of Riley's ancestors who were some of the first townsfolk in a room full of pictures. Honestly it would have been like looking for a needle in a hay stack, but it was one of the first ones we were drawn too. Coincidence?

We were able to see so many neat things there - war memorabilia, old automobiles and carriages, little rooms set up like the inside of old houses, animals, Indian artifacts,....just so many neat things we were not expecting. Take a look:

As you can see from the last picture Morgan was not happy. He hated that little stroller the whole trip. I'm sure the museum people were glad when we were gone! On the way back we stopped at Beverly Beach outside of Newport and let the kids play some more since it was such a nice day. There was a little stream of water running down to the ocean that the kids had fun playing in and Kendle actually ran out into the ocean and got really wet. She is too brave for her own good sometimes! The weather was lovely though, even the Morgster did not mind getting a little wet. It was a great way to finish off our fun day.

Thursday morning we drove down to the wharf and walked around a bit. We took the kids to go see the sea lions there, they always make us laugh. Kendle kept trying to get them to talk to her which made all of the people around us laugh. I'm not sure what Morgan thought, but he seemed pretty interested. The sun was shining off the water and we had a beautiful view.

*Side note- don't even waste your time trying to fix your hair at the coast. *

After getting our fill of the sea lions and the fish smell of the wharf we drove to Devil's Punch Bowl State Park and had a picnic. We enjoyed the great weather and the sound of the ocean while we ate. We had lots of little visitors too. There are tons of squirrel's there, none of which were afraid to approach us for some food. Kendle thought they were so cute, but Riley quickly reminded her they are nothing more than glorified rodents. (Wow, way to take all of the fun out of it dad.) We walked down where we could see the "punch bowl" and it looked like the perfect place for a pirate to stow some treasure. Pretty amazing what mother nature can do.

We decided some afternoon shopping was in order so we headed to the Tanger Outlet Mall in Lincoln City. We did some school shopping for Kendle and found her the cutest back pack. There are always lots of good deals to be found, especially at the children's stores, but I did manage to snag some good deals for myself. We walked and walked, and walked some more. We worked up quite an appetite and decided to have an early dinner here:

It was super good, even Kendle our picky eater raved about her food. We were totally worn out and so we headed back to our hotel to do one last night of swimming and relaxing. We packed everything up before bed that night and I think we all fell asleep before our heads hit the pillow.