First, let me say, the biggest mistake we've made so far on this trip, other than getting the flight time wrong, is the choice of shoes we made to pack. We both should have brought hiking boots and something to wear when walking on the beach that can get wet.
Yesterday, we went to Tillamook to visit cheesemaking facilities.
It's definitely not as touristy as the strip from Rockaway Beach to
Astoria that we traveled the day before. Our first stop was Blue Heron
French Cheeses, which Barbara believed to be a small cheesemaker. It
turns out they outsourced their local
brie to California some
years before, and what we expected to be a cheesemaker turned out to be
a roadside petting zoo and gift shop—fine for what it was, but not
what we were after.
We had crossed the Tillamook Creamery off the list as an industrial cheese facility, larger scale than what Barbara was interested in. After Blue Heron, though, we were still looking for some actual cheese being made, so we stopped up the road at the Tillamook Cheese plant. It turned out to be smaller than Barbara expected. Established by local dairies to facilitate trade of dairy products for needed supplies from Portland, the Tillamook Creamery Assocation is one of the earliest manifestations of the local agriculture movement.
Much like our trip to Cornwall in 2002, much of this trip seems to be about rocks, water, and rocks in the water. Check out my flickr photostream to see what I mean.
Last night, we supped on local pears, wine, cheese, and bread in the common area of the inn. It was the best evening meal we've had so far.