Coastline

Driving down the western coast of our country has long been something I have wanted to see.  While I am not going to see nearly all of it, I am getting the opportunity to see nearly all of the Oregon coastline. Jeff and Rebecca gave me some great pointers as to places to stop along the way along the route.  

I started by driving west of Portland through a National Forest, stopping at a small gallery along the way.

Tillamook cheese is something you may have seen in your local grocery store, and well, it is cheese, so what's not to love? Being in Tillamook county, I had decided I should stop at the cheese factory.  I was expecting a nice factory where I would encounter a handful of cars in the parking lot and a nice lady to greet me and explain the factory to me.  I could not have been more wrong.  The parking lot rivaled those found at a Wal-Mart and the crowd inside rivaled that of Black Friday traffic.  I was able to see some of the production line and learn more about how the company started before tasting some of the product.  

And they were giving away free ice cream!

A few years ago, when my parents and I were in the northwest, I had my first experience with cheese curds, and well, what's not to love?  Before visiting the factory, I had planned to perhaps get a grilled cheese for an early lunch.  But after the tasting, I decided instead, a bag of cheese curds and pieces of toasted french bread would make an even better lunch:

Why "squeaky" cheese?  Well, just try to scrape your teeth on this delicious cheese without making it squeak!  I made the mistake of looking at the saturated fat content, and well... it's salad for dinner tonight!

The Oregon coast was everything and more that I had expected.  I went through lush greenery where the only thing that was not green were the trunks of the trees before flat sandy beaches stretched as far as the eye could see, then rocky coastlines lined the shore before sand dunes as high as those in the Sahara desert stood towering over the coastline.  

Not a good photo, but check out the heights of the dunes.

Seals and sea lions take advantage of the rocky coast, using it to sun their bodies and enjoy splashing in the water.  I stopped at a place where I was able to walk down to an overlook and see well over 100 seals crowded onto a rock: sleeping, fussing, and making sounds that rival the hungriest rumble of a stomach.  Then, I took an elevator down into one of the world's largest sea caves: 2 acres on the ground and 125 feet high.  In the center of the sea cave, a rock still gets a little bit of sunshine and it was here that a family of seals sat and played. There are differences between seals and sea lions that I learned about, but now I can't remember the difference, but the guides did say there were some both in this mix.

I'm currently staying in a VERY small town called Charleston which is on a small bay just off the coast.  After my salad, I went just a few miles to the coast to a place called Sunset Cove in hope of catching a good sunset, after all, I'm just about as west on this continent as I can go, but unfortunately the fog had set in and the sun was not terribly visible as it set here beginning to light the other half of the world.

Miles traveled: 268
Gallons of gas purchased: 9.5

Hours in the car: 7.5

States: Oregon