Saturday, October 5, 2024

Our day began at Nehalem Bay State Park, located on the Nehalem Spit near the towns of Nehalem and Manzanita. All the Oregan State Parks we’ve stayed at so far have similar amenities (electric, water, dump station, and trash/recycling) and are widely utilized. Even in October, campgrounds are packed with people camping and recreating.

Our family spent the first part of the morning at our campsite having breakfast and getting ready for the day. Andi cooked hashbrowns and sausage patties on the Blackstone grill on the picnic table outside. While Tory sat at the dinete applying her makeup, she quizzed Aden about each of the products she used. “What’s this one called?” she’d ask him. “Yep, it helps contour the face.” His future wife will be impressed by all his skincare knowledge.

Before we left the campground, Aden took out the trash for us. He’s been a big help on this trip, taking out the trash every day, helping Andi set up Starlink, or dump the septic. As we were packing up this morning, Aden popped his head into the camper and said, “OK if I kill the internet?” which is exactly what Andi says. So grown up! It made me smile.

Our first stop this morning was to a place we’ve all been excited about — Tillamook Creamery. This seems like a must-do activity when traveling through Tillamook County because they offer ice cream, free cheese samples, and it’s free! Need I say more?

As expected, this was a busy place — especially because it was Saturday. Tillamook Creamery has a good plan for this, though, and there was ample parking for everyone. The first thing we saw when we entered the large, modern building was a grand staircase inviting visitors to a second floor observation area for a self-guided tour with free samples, informational signage, and a kids play area. Downstairs is a cafe selling Tillamook ice cream and treats, as well as a gift shop.

I liked the big viewing windows most. Here, we were able to watch the assembly line workers cut cheese into bricks, weigh each block, and package the cheese for sale. The only thing that would have made this better was someone telling us about the steps. There was informational signs posted, but it was hard to read them amogst the crowds of people.

We grabbed a few cheese samples before making our way downstairs to the gift shop. In addition to cheese and ice cream, the gift shop also sold postcards, sweatshirts, and kitchen gadgets. “Should I get one of these sweatshirts?” Aden asked us. “You don’t even like cheese,” Andi responded. “Why would you want to wear a Tillamook sweatshirt?”

In the end, we didn’t buy anything in the gift shop or the cafe. We decided to skip the lines and go to a grocery store nearby and buy Tillamook cheese and ice cream there. That’s a cost-savings tip we discovered when we visited the Ben & Jerrys factory in Vermont last year.

No regrets paying a visit to Tillamook Creamery! It’s a dairy-lovers Disney Land with food and free samples, and neat to see the cheese-making process in action. As we left the Tillamook building, a strong smell of cow manure hit our noses. “Do they pipe this smell in for effect?” Andi joked. Nope, I think that’s the real deal from all the cows in the area. The cool, wet climate of Tillamook County grows ample amounts of green grass which is perfect for dairy cows.

Our next stop in Tillamook was to the grocery store and the laundramat, conveniently located next to one another. We needed to do laundry and I wanted to catch part of the Nebraska Cornhuskers football game this afternoon, so Andi set up the Starlink satelite internet on top of the RV in the parking lot. The kids asked to go into the grocery store with Andi so they could pick out their flavors of Tillamook ice cream, and I washed our clothes and bedding at the laundramat.

Andi sent a text asking what other food we needed; Fred Meyer was a really nice grocery store, he said. He bought grilled chicken stir-fry, a pork tenderloin, milk, yogurt, veggies, and yes — Tillamook ice cream. “Five pints of ice cream?!” I questioned as I unload the shopping bags. “There was a sale — $2.99 each!” Andi defended. Tory and Aden were jazzed about having an ice cream taste test later this evening.

Andi left again to pick up tacos from a food truck nearby while I finished drying and folding the laundry. Meanwhile, Aden and Tory lounged around the RV watching shows & playing games on their iPads.

Around 4:30pm, we drove down the street to a lesser-known cheese factory in Tillamook called Blue Heron French Cheese Company. Blue Heron specializes in French cheeses and wine, and has a variety of activities to entertain customers — a small petting zoo, food trucks, and an outdoor patio area with a fire pit. In addition, they also allow free camping in their parking with permission.

The four of us popped inside the gift shop to ask about camping tonight, and bought a bottle of local Oregon wine, a brick of cheese, and two honey sticks while we were there. I wished the food trucks or the outdoor fire pit had been going, but everything was closed for the day.

“We’ve still got some daylight left, should we go check out the Cape Meares Lighthouse? I suggested to Andi. We agreed that we should, otherwise we’d just sit around inside the camper for the rest of the evening.

Cape Meares Lighthouse is located about 20 minutes outside the town of Tillamook along the coast. Along the way, we saw a few van campers parked in a gravel parking area overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Andi drove past, and then reversed the RV to pull into the site.

“How did I miss this place?” he said, sounding disappointed with himself. “I’d way rather camp here than in the Blue Heron parking lot,” he said.

“What about the animals? I wanted to play with the animals at the other place,” Aden begged.

It didn’t matter to me either way.

“We’re going to camp here tonight, buddy” Andi confirmed, and began jostling the RV to find the most-level parking position.

This wild camping spot was perfect for the night. Andi set out three camp chairs in front of our RV to watch the sunset. Tory decided to stay inside the RV to watch her phone. After Andi called Aden down a few times about throwing rocks, he got mad and joined his sister inside the camper.

Andi and I watched the sunset together, and then joined the kids inside the RV for dinner and TV time. I made a snack plate of cheese, crackers, and olives for my dinner, and made the kids each bowls of gnocchi. Andi said he was still full from lunch and skipped dinner altogether.

The four of us concluded our evening watching a few episodes of Young Sheldon on Netflix together.

Tomorrow, we’ll continue our roadtrip south along the Oregon coast.