Getting closer to California...

Tillamook Cheese Factory

Hmmm...  where's Haley when we finally get wi-fi and have time to work on the blog???  It's Thursday night, 7/21, and we're pretty much in the middle of the l-o-n-g Oregon coast...  we started west of Portland at  Cannon Beach, which I'd never been to before... loved it, Haley and I spent some time on the beach (this silly picture has Haley fooling around with a type of seaweed we never see in Hawaii!) while Mom visited with a lady on her deck overlooking the beach.  We had a great lunch that included shrimp for Mom and me, while Haley had grilled cheese...  some shopping, and then we headed down to Tillamook.  The cheese factory was a fun self-guided tour,  so many assembly lines and automated actions to watch...  I just wondered what everyone's job was and how the cheese seemed to be moving by faster than the humans could do what needed to be done...  it also reminded all of us of the 'I Love Lucy' episode where Lucy and Ethel were working in the chocolate factory! 

 I should back up a little...  after heading east from Glacier National Park and Kalispell, where we spent two nights with old college friends, we headed toward Seattle which was another first for me, and of course Haley...  actually for all three of us!  Highest on our list of 'Things to See' were Pike's Place Market and the Space Needle...  This 3rd photo is out in front of Pike's Place...  We had to see the fish booth where they threw the fish around, very entertaining! Driving in Seattle with the motorhome would have been treacherous, so we parked it at a mall and took the bus downtown...  then we took the monorail to the Space Needle, which was so enjoyable, a nice sunny day with a great view around the city and Puget Sound.  We all did fine with the height.  It's getting ready to celebrate its 50th anniversay!  We spent the night parked in front of my step-daughter Monica's house.  It was so nice to visit some with her, Jim, and  Christopher...  Emily was at camp... 

     Next we headed south and stopped at the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center...  it was a cloudy day, so we couldn't see the mountain, but a few weeks ago we saw it from a distance while driving to Hood River along the Columbia River...  So anyway, we have this pic to prove we were there.  The movie in the Visitor Center was horrifying...  hope we never witness anything like that on the Big Island!!!   We drove to Vancouver and met a friend of mine from 6th grade (!!!) for dinner at a great chicken teriyaki place.   

That pretty much brings us up to the present...  tomorrow I think we'll be seeing Linda, one of my high school friends and a college roommate.  This trip has really been a great opportunity to re-connect with old friends.  I still have to write about our time at my mom's Banjo Camp in Sweet Home, OR and seeing Barb in Eugene...  I hadn't figured out how to import photos then, so that part of our trip isn't even on the blog yet!