11 July 2012

 There’s not much to see driving south along the Oregon coast when the marine layer is thick.  Grey and drab green describe the day so far.  We’ve made it to Tillamook OR, home of Tillamook Cheese.  We stopped and did the self-guided tour of the factory.  Tillamook only makes cheddar cheese at this factory, and their jabanero cheddar definitely fires up your mouth.  The cheese squeeze is their version of cheese curds and it sort of squeaks when you chew it.  Tillamook ice cream was purchased at the café, so life was once again good for Roger.

Next stop was the Latimer Quilt and Textile center.  Inside there’s a school room, a loom room, quilt display room and of course stuff to purchase.  See the previous posting, where I let the pictures do the talking. 

Since Roger had to go to the center, he’s now in the Tillamook Air Museum wishing his new friend Allen Olsen was here with him.  I have no appreciation for old air planes.  [I'll get Roger to pick some planes out for subsequent posting.] 

From there we went to try to see lighthouses.  The Yaquina Head Lighthouse was built in 1873, and is Oregon’s tallest lighthouse and continues to shine with its original lens in place.  When we first got to the lighthouse, from a distance you could barely see the top of the lighthouse due to the marine layer, which was moving so fast you could see it fly by.

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was lit from 1871 to 1874, and is the only wooden lighthouse on the Oregon coast, that also has its living quarters attached.  This five bedroom lighthouse was restored to operation in 1996, through “Friends of the Lighthouse” funding.  The house was large for the time, had a very small kitchen and of course an outside privy.  It did get somewhat clear, as you can see from the picture of the Yaquina Bay Bridge, built in 1936. 

From there we made our way slowly down the winding Oregon coast to Florence, where we’ve stopped for the night.  It's really windy right now, downright chilly but the annoying thing is that you can see the sun.  Yet it's too windy to walk on the beach due to the blowing sand.  We've had enough of the coast, so tomorrow we start our trek east!  OBTW we're over 12,300 miles, but who is counting?