Entering Washington

June 28 2012

We toured around in the jeep on Thursday; mostly it is rural with small villages spaced on 101, the ocean highway. Everything here on coastal Oregon is green which is in stark contrast to the desert area’s we have been in the last few weeks. It reminds me of our eastern continental Mountains, except evergreen trees are predominate here. The ocean vistas from the high overlooks are spectacular, entirely different than our midAtlantic to southern beaches back east. We don’t have mountains at seaside for one thing nor do we have rocks as big as buildings on the shore. Each has its own attractive features; I’ll not try to pick one as better.

Highway 101 must be like a western Appalachian trail of sorts, expect its bicycler’s that we see everywhere. They are mostly young people, some solitary, many in groups, their bikes burdened down with camping gear as they struggle up the grades and zip downhill. There are many parks and campgrounds along the ocean highway for them to bivouac in overnight. We see a few hikers, but mostly its cyclers.

We stopped to tour the Tillamook Cheese Factory which is just a few miles northwest of our campground at Pacific City. Unlike the Evergreen Aviation Museum where the visitors walk among the historic aircraft with hushed reverence, the cheese factory was a beehive of activity. I think every tourist family with kids in Oregon was there. Fortunately, families are its intended customer and it is designed to accommodate them. In addition to the self guided tour of the factory on an elevated glass walled walkway, there was much for the tiny tourists and their parents. The Tillamook cheese factory had two ice cream shops, a fudge shop, a cafe where you could get grilled cheese sandwiches, a gift shop, and a cheese store. It was an interesting visit; I especially enjoyed the automation in the factory, my busman’s holiday, so to speak.

Friday we drove the motorhome up the ocean highway, crossing the Columbia River and entering Washington. Our destination was just a few miles into Washington just outside of SeaView at another Thousand Trails Park, this one called Long Beach. We will be here for 3 nights, just like the last camp we can walk to the beach from the motorhome. We also have the adjacent beach towns of SeaView and Long Beach to explore.