Rockaway: Lots of Eating and Playing

.What with staying up late each night to watch the Olympics, we never got a very early start in the mornings. Tom and I would be up, but teenagers and their mom like to sleep in. 

Thursday morning we were very pleased to find the Bayfront Bakery in Garibaldi open for business. 

Jill is noted for her six item bakery food fest, but she settled for three this time. 

From the bakery we traveled south to The Blue Heron French Cheese Company, where we found fun outside at the petting zoo and inside tasting samples of cheese and preserves and other local products. 

 Look! It's an Oregon Duck!

 Irene was not at all sure about holding a hen, but Allie loved it. 

 Inside the shop you can buy small packets of grain to feed the animals "healthy" snacks. 

 This guy kept his distance. No horning in on the treats.

From the Blue Heron we drove north to the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. We had lots of company. This is a must stop for tourists on the north Oregon Coast. 

We spent time at the viewing windows watching the cheese making process, as we always do. We shopped in the gift shops and managed to leave most of the items for others to buy. The kids posed in the cheese loaf van, also always a requirement.

And of course we ate ice cream. I actually had just a few spoonfuls of Tom's Mocha Almond Fudge, since we had been eating lots of ice cream every evening.

See what I mean? This was the well-stocked cabin freezer.

It was about 1:00 when we got back to the cabin, time to check out the Pronto Pup right across the highway from the cabin.

For 50 cents you can ride the world's only mechanical corn dog. 

In fact the corn dog was invented right here in Rockaway Beach, when the hot dog vendor overcame a soggy rain soaked bun problem by dipping the dogs in pancake batter, or so the owners claim. 

Lunch to go. 

I had a bit healthier lunch at the cabin and set off on my daily beach walk. 

My route, between two creeks, is about three miles round trip, and is marked by the changing perspective of the rocks. To start we have an arched rock. 

Down the beach the hole closes from view and we get the official Twin Rocks. 

At the turn around point we see that there is a back side to those rocks and they look more like book ends waiting for books.

Point of view is everything. 

I had the beach almost to myself until I encountered this wet moppet emerging from the surf. 

She was cold and wet and done, but these two were in it for more. 

After a warm shower Irene tried her hand at kite flying with her mom. I sat on the beach and read my book. 

Jill and I cooked dinner and after a rest we all went back out onto the beach to watch the sunset, play, and eat s'mores. 

We watched the stars come out, and the first of the Perseid meteor showers. 

We went back inside to catch up with the Olympics, and at midnight Jill, Irene and I went back out to watch for a few more falling stars. 

Going to Rockaway Beach

Each summer we spend some time at the Norquist Family cabin on the beach in Rockaway on the Oregon coast. It has been a family destination for almost 40 years, since  my mom and dad bought it with the help of my sister and brother-in-law. 

Our kids were about two and four when we first started going. There were a few years when Tom and I went by ourselves as empty nesters, and we do go on our own during the fall and spring for a few days, but it is more fun again now that we have grandchildren to go with. 

We travel down I-5 to Longview, where we cross the Columbia River from Washington into Oregon. 

 There was a log truck on the bridge, of course.

 Longview is a major port for shipping logs and lumber overseas. 

 Then we follow the river west to Astoria, where the Columbia meets the Pacific Ocean. 

 Then we go south down the Coast Highway 101 until we finally reach our destination!

Jill and the kids had arrived the day before. It was late afternoon when we arrived, bringing the fixings for dinner with us.  After dinner we all went for a walk on the beach road. 

 It was cloudy but very calm, as you can see from the glass like finish on the lake along the highway. 

 We checked out the new attraction, the Pronto Pup diner. We would have to come back when it was open. 

We spent the rest of the evening watching the Olympics and eating Tillamook ice cream. 

The next morning we were disappointed to find the Garibaldi bakery was not open, so we ended up at the Starbucks in the Fred Meyer store in Tillamook, where we then spent much of the rest of the morning marathon shopping for food for the next few days, and even some school clothes for Irene. 

The sun was having a hard time burning off the fog, so it was cloudy when we finally got out onto the beach to walk and read and play. 

 This house sits just in front of our cabin and a bit south. It was built about five years ago, but should never have been permitted. See those upright logs? They are what is left of the bulkhead the city built about 15 years ago. In the last five years the beach erosion here has been severe. The owner of the house, which is a vacation rental, wants to put in rock rip rap, but he cannot get permission from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Dept, which has supervision of the public coastal beaches. We don't know if the house is doomed. And you can see why we were forced to put our cabin on stilts.

 Hamburgers and grilled corn on the cob were on the dinner menu. 

 The sky finally cleared just at sunset. 

More adventures tomorrow!

Vacation Time

I'll be here - Rockaway Beach, Oregon - with these guys.

No Internet.

See You later!