The Best Darn Cheese and Ice Cream

We said good bye to our Lincoln City beach house and headed north to Astoria.  It was time to see another part of the state.

On our way, we saw a couple more lighthouses and more cool beaches and towns.

Here's Cape Meares Lighthouse.  It sits up high on a cliff so it's a shorter lighthouse.  Very windy.  This was another great place to look for whales.  The volunteer that was there said that one was spotted just 30 minutes before we got there.  We watched for awhile, but we weren't lucky.

This last picture cracks me up.  The wind whipped my bangs in my face just as the picture was taken.  Plus, Josh's big smile makes me smile.

Here's Cape Kiwanda beach captured on Matt's film camera in black and white.

We drove the Suburban out in the sand (because we were allowed to) while it was pouring rain.  Matt did a "doughnut", but that freaked me out.  I was paranoid we get stuck or something, so I made him stop.  Josh was bummed.  It was a really cool beach with a big sand dune hill that would have been fun to climb up if it had been a nice day.

Our highlight on the drive north was a stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  If you've ever lived in the west, then you probably have had Tillamook cheese.  I've been buying the medium cheddar for the past 12 years since I discovered it while living in California.  We were even able to buy it at the commissary in Guam but not in North Carolina.  Now that we live in Idaho, we can get Tillamook ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, butter, etc.

They have self-guided tours where you can see the cheese being packaged.  What a cool assembly line.  The area where the cheese gets made wasn't quite as interesting because it all happens in large stainless steel vats.

After seeing and reading about cheese making, we went through a taste testing line.  And then they have you walk through their store where you can buy all things Tillamook.

Finally, we got what we really wanted... the ice cream.  They had a ton of flavors that we can't get in the stores, so we all got something different in waffle cones.  On our way out, we piled into this funky Tillamook van and had our picture taken.

Our last pitstop before getting to Astoria was the famous Cannon Beach.  I know you have all seen pictures of this beach.  It has also been in some movies... like the 1980s movie The Goonies.  The weather was still horrible.  The wind was so cold and strong.  We stopped long enough to go to the bathroom and take a couple of mandatory pictures.  What a shame that we couldn't enjoy this beautiful place.