It was clear but cold when we woke up. The thermometer read 45; for those of us from Southern California, that’s January! But it made little difference as we were not planning to hit the beach right away. No, as intrepid tourists how could we resist Tripadvisor’s number 1 attraction in the area, the Tillamook Cheese factory!
The Tillamook Creamery – its official name – is pretty cheesy (sorry, I couldn’t resist that). You look down on two rooms. In one, the milk is heated until the curds (solids) and whey (liquid) are separated. Artificial color is added to the curds, and they pressed and heated until even more water comes out. Finally, the machines extrude 40 pounds blocks of yellow milk solids. A conveyor belt sends these blocks to another room where another group of workers seal them in plastic bags. The lighting was not great, and somehow the camera made the cheese look even more unnatural than it already was!
At this point, the cheese is sent over to a warehouse for aging. Generally the longer a cheese is aged, the better its flavor. But it is expensive to simply stockpile cheese under climate-controlled conditions, so after about 60 days most of the cheese is sent off to market.
The real attraction, the reason there are so many RV’s in that parking lot, is the cheese bar when you can get free samples of the different Tillamook products. They are arranged in order of aging. The first bowl has cheese curds, the slimy little pieces of unaged cheddar. Prior to this I had only had cheese curds on poutine, but they were no better separated from soggy French fries and pork gravy.
The tasting room led into the shop where all the flavors of Tillamook cheese are on sale. We bought a chunk of the three year cheddar which is really quite good. I cannot be quite so effusive about the 60 day cheddar. There is also a large ice cream stand where the different flavors of Tillamook ice cream can be sampled. John and I shared the five flavors for five dollars bowl. I liked Mudslide the best.
One the way back from the Tillamook Creamery we found the Tillamook Crematory. I am sure that my vegan friends would probably not see this as merely a difference of a few letters, but as emblematic of the evil of dairy consumption. John just figured that if he had been typing our morning destination into the GPS he might have ended up here instead.
We spend the afternoon doing the Three Capes Drive. We did much of this a few years ago on our first trip to Oregon with Edie. She showed no particular signs of remembering any of it, but as I have often noted dogs seem to have little appreciation for scenery. Here we are at the Cape Mears Lighthouse.
I have to admit that while I would certainly not be in favor of taking down any of these lighthouses, I do not quite understand the attraction they have for some people. There are folks who travel up and down the entire length of the continent visiting different lighthouses with the enthusiasm that birders have for sighting different species. To me, when you have seen one Fresnel lens you have seen all of them.
Not far from this was the Candelabra Tree. This was good, but I pondered how much more fun it could be if it had the full “Trees of Mystery" treatment.
We found an isolated beach not that far away, and Edie and Eli frolicked. Edie seemed intent on posing for photographs. Eli, of course, was obsessed with his ball.
We continued on to Pacific City. It is interesting how all of these towns on the Oregon Coast seem to attract a different group of tourists and each seems to have an appropriately different personality. You can drive your truck on the beach in Pacific City, and it’s not surprising that a brewpub dominates the town like the cathedral does in Durham. Just the signs “Burgers, Burritos, and Beer” tell you all you need to know about Pacific City.
There are sand dunes nearby when you can ride ATVs. One section of it, however, that thankfully set aside as a county park and wildlife area. A creek flowed into the ocean here, and the shallow water and vast expanse of sand were perfect for retrieving tennis balls.
It was late by the time we returned to Netarts. We had planned a longer evening stroll like we had had the night before, but it was very windy and quite cold. So we drove a couple miles to Oceanside and strolled there for a bit.
Despite what felt like arctic conditions to us, the sunset was lovely.
On the way back, we stopped where the boys had build their volcano the night before to see their efforts today. It was even bigger and better! I would definitely give them first prize in the Science Fair.
