Monday, August 4, 2014

It was a nippy start to the day as it was 13.4C, but should soon brighten up! There had been some light rain overnight. We are overrun with rabbits, all colours & sizes!


At 8:10 we were off to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, again.
When we arrived, the parking lot was almost empty. The self-guided tour was excellent. We saw the production of the cheese from start to packaging. http://www.tillamook.com/cheese-factory/index.html
Tillamook Cheese Factory is one of the top 10 visitor attractions in Oregon. Every day they make 171,00 pounds of cheese. There is also ice cream made here.

Each of the eight stainless steel cheese vats holds approximately 53,00- pounds of fresh milk. On average, each vat makes three batches of cheese per day.

It takes 10 pounds (1.16 gallons) of milk to make 1 pound of Tillamook Cheese.
More than 1.7 million pounds of milk arrive at the plant every day. Approximately 167,000 pounds of cheese are made every day!





40 pound blocks of cheese arrive at the packaging room after ageing in the warehouse and being graded for quality.

 Blocks are cut into individual pieces in one of three different packaging lines and then are packaged into convenient sizes.
Each piece runs over a scale called a checkweighter. Off-weight pieces are directed to the side. Underweight pieces ate patched overweight pieces are trimmed before being packaged.

Following the tour, there was a Gift Shop, of course, and a tasting room. Yummy!







From there we were off on the Three Capes Scenic Tour. First was a fuel stop at Fred Myers ($3.919/gallon) just over $1.00/litre CDN.
Once again, the skies are clearing as we head off to Cape Lookout at 9:55.




When we arrived at Cape Lookout State Park, we walked along the beach. Yes, the water was cold!
It had clouded over and was about 15C.














Marcel took a 'selfie' and got me in it!







Our next stop was at Clay Myers State Natural Area at Whalen Island where we went on a 1.5 mile  interesting hike.
The Clay Myers State Natural Area at Whalen Island is a remarkable place. A virtually untouched coastal estuarine ecosystem, it is bounded by the Sand Creek estuary. This is critically valuable habitat for adult salmon moving upstream to spawn and for smolt leaving the inland fresh waters for their marine journey. The area is a ecological potpourri, including mixed woodlands, grasslands, fresh and saltwater wetlands (the Lillian Parker Craft Wetland) and a rare native dune sedgeland. Species run the gamut from salmon and steelhead to shorebirds to deer, otter, and even bear and cougar.

At 12:10 we moved along to Kiwanda and stopped for lunch at the Pelican Pub & Brewery, Cape Kiwanda, which I thought would be a small, intimate pub. Boy, was I wrong! It was on the beach & probably seats about 150. The menu was varied & service was quick. I had an Oyster Po'boy and Marcel had Linguine with Clams. Both delicious!





After lunch we watched people climbing the sand dune and sliding, rolling & running down.

Looks like I need to clean my camera lens.......







We made one more stop at Bob Straub State Park Beach south of Pacific City. It was sunny but VERY windy. As you can see, the beach was deserted.

Then it was back to the campground to do laundry before moving on tomorrow.