We woke up as the traffic started to pick up again, with more cars and trucks zooming past to get to the Oregon Coast. We soon joined them, going to Tillamook Creamery, the famous cheese factory we'd last been to about a decade ago. Michael is a huge fan of Tillamook ice cream (as we type this there's some in our freezer right now), and we enjoyed ordering ice cream and seeing how the cheese is made onsite when we were last there.
We figured it'd be busy as it was the Sunday of a long weekend, but we were still amazed at how crowded it was, given we arrived at 10.30am! We were just able to find a parking spot at the end of the factory parking lot, and walked to a huge building that was a significant step up from the much smaller one we'd last visited. Now, everything seemed to be a much slicker and corporate operation, from the massive entrance, to the signage inside, and the general expansion of the factory. Clearly, lots of people are buying Tillamook cheese and ice cream! While it was a bit overwhelming to see so many people there, it was great to compare and contrast our visits, get a few free samples of Tillamook cheese, and collect a few new memories for our second time there.
Pronto Pup
Keeping up with the healthy eating, we drove to Rockaway Beach, which is home to Pronto Pup, which was invented about more than 80 years ago, apparently when rain ruined the buns for the hot dog stand owned by George and Versa Boyington. Rather than relying on bread, a batter was invented to enjoy encase the hot dogs, making Pronto Pup a popular place to this day. It's very similar to a corndog, but Google research says that the difference is in the batter: Pronto Pups use a pancake batter, while corn dogs have a thicker and sweeter batter that often includes cornbread ingredients, which also makes them fluffier in texture.
We fortunately found a spot to park just before the store, which was crowded with people ordering all sorts of hot dogs wrapped in batter (for vegetarians, there's a mock meat version, and also a pickle or zucchini Pronto Pup; Lisette ordered the zucchini one which is basically a stick of zucchini that's deep fried in the batter). There's a ton of different dipping sauces available (mustard, ketchup and a blend of both), some fun merchandise, and a Pronto Pup ride out the front. Lisette sat on it to pose for a picture, only for a bunch of kids to see and immediately crowd around, wanting their turn on the ride!
The Pronto Pup is great if you love deep fried food like corndogs, although Lisette figured it was good to try just the one time. It's definitely not something to eat on a regular basis!
Driving Down The Portland Coast
Along the coast, there were a lot of cute seaside towns, reminiscent of the beachfront towns in Northern California that we used to frequent. We saw small fishing villages, beachside cafes and restaurants, lovely (and undoubtedly expensive) beachfront homes, and folks out and about looking like they were headed to the water for a picnic or run along the sand.
There were a few different beaches and towns that we wanted to stop and check out (including rock formations like Twin Rocks and Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach), but it was just too crowded, and there was nowhere we could stop to park our RV. However, we loved driving along the coast, as we realize that after almost 100 days, this is the first time since embarking on this road trip where we've seen the ocean again!
Shipwreck on the Sand
Finally, we were able to park the car on the coast at a town called Seaside. Sheila was definitely excited to have her paws touch down on sand again--when we lived in San Francisco, she'd run happily up and down sand dunes, along the wet sand, and into the water (although she always likes to have her feet on solid ground so she never ventures too far). There's something so nice about being able to take your shoes off and walk along the sand, which we did until we reached the Painted Rock Beach, a quiet part of the beach with--you guessed it--hand painted rocks. It seems though that a lot of people have collected these rocks, as there weren't many left for us to look out when we were there.
We were also able to find a parking spot at Fort Stevens State Park, about 30 minutes north of Painted Rock Beach. There were a lot of people who were walking along the beach with their dogs, sitting around on towels having a picnic with their families, and just enjoying the weather (cool, breezy and a bit grey as is typical for the Pacific Northwest, but still rather nice). One of the main attractions at the State Park is the Wreck of the Peter Iredale, a ship built in England in 1890 and owned by the British shipping company Iredale & Porter. In 1906, the ship sailed from Mexico to Portland, running aground on the Oregon coast. Today, it's a fascinating and rusty relic of another era that continues to wear away from wind, saltwater and time on the shore. Lisette wasn't eager to touch the ship (touching anything heavily corroded makes her think of tetanus, although she is up to date with her shots!). Michael was happy to clamber up the ship and explore it--as was a lady who ended up getting stuck at the top, and paced up and down for ages in a panicky state, until she was finally able to jump down to her friend. Often going up is much easier than coming down!
Welcome Back to Washington
Once again, we crossed over from Oregon to Washington (no toll bridge this time), arriving at Long Beach, where we pulled in to wait for the statue of the razor clam to squirt water on the hour. While we waited, we ordered clam chowder and fish & chips from the small seafood store across the road.
In typical Washington state fashion, though, as it became later in the evening the temperatures dropped further and it started to rain. Feeling cold, we went into our RV to eat dinner, only to miss the razor clam squirting water--oh well! We really did I guess do what we could to avoid water, whether it was coming from clouds or mollusks!
As all the beach towns are quite small and don't allow RV overnight parking, we had to drive out and initially thought we'd have to cross back into the Oregon side for the night. But we ended up finding a roadside stop that was right along the water--so wonderful! We were ecstatic and commented that this was the kind of stop that made RV living so awesome. What a perfect setting for waking up to our 100th day on the road!
