Day 2 - Sep 1, 2007 Last updated: 9/9/07 2:30pm PT
First stop is Ft. Stevens, a military reservation that guarded the mouth of the Columbia River from the Civil War through World War II. There is a shipwreck on the beach of the English sailing ship “Peter Iredale” that ran aground in 1906. There isn’t much left.
After a quick drive through Seaside (a very touristy town), we went to Ecola State Park. That little blob out in the ocean in the middle of the third picture is a light house.
Lunch was at Cranky Sue’s in Cannon Beach, another touristy town. The food was good, but a bit pricey, as I’m sure every place is here. After lunch we saw Haystack rock. This is the first of two rocks with the name “Haystack” in Oregon. They are remarkably similar looking, although this one is smaller. We’ll see the other one tomorrow.
Tonight is spent in Tillamook (pronounced Till-a-m’k, I think). We went to the Tillamook Pioneer Museum. My impression: quite a large collection of dead birds and military things, not so much pioneer stuff. It’s worth a look if you’re in the area. During WWII, Tillamook had been a base for blimps used as anit-sub patrols/escorts on the west coast. One of the blimp hangers still exists and is an air museum.
But the main attraction is the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Here’s where they make some great cheese and ice cream. There wasn’t much activity in the factory as it was a Saturday. They have free samples of the cheese, but you have to buy the ice cream. It’s worth it. Yumm. The line for ice cream was very long at dinner time, so we went back to our hotel and came back for ice cream around 7 and the line was much smaller.
Dinner was at a small trailer across the street from the cheese factory. They sell fish, so you wouldn’t think to go there to eat, but if you like cheese and crab, you should go. They have a Tillamook cheese sandwich with shrimp, Dungeness crab, or both. They were very nice to us. They usually only serve lunch, but since they hadn’t shut the grill down for the day at about 4:30, they grilled us up some cheese sandwiches.
