Day 4 - I See Dead Things

Rachel is back home for a few days, so this is Dave and I'll be guest blogging from the coast.

First, a note about last night - since Rachel had to get up and leave for work early, that left me and Tim to enjoy the fire and look out over the ocean late last night.  I turned off the lights so I could see the ships on the ocean.  It was very nice.  The next thing I knew, Tim was patting my on the shoulder, "Dad, time to go to bed."  Yes, I'd fallen asleep in the chair.  But it's not a bad way to fall asleep - a fire burning down in the fireplace, the sound of the waves outside, and a nice view of the lights on the ships at sea.

Rachel left about 6:40am, and I guess her leaving woke me up.  This was fine with me, as the tide was out and I was happy to get some walking in.  I headed down from the house at about 7:00, right at low tide, and walked about 2 miles north to Rock WAHII*.  Along the way, there were a heck of a lot of dead things on the beach.  Along with the usual dead seagulls, jellyfish, Dungeness crabs and star fish, I came across a dead seal or sea lion (I didn't get close enough to check the ears).  Sad.  But I had a nice walk and saw a few sea stars that were not dead.  The numbers are way down from previous years due to the wasting disease, but I'm told that they are starting to make a comeback.

After walking the 2 miles back from Rock WAHII to the house, I woke Tim up and took a shower while he ate breakfast.  Our plan was to head to Tillamook for the morning.  We got on the road about 10:00 and arrived at our first destination just before 11 (after seeing a dead deer on the side of the road).  Pelican Brewing was started in Pacific City, but recently built a second brewery and taproom in Tillamook.  Their website mentioned tours, but didn't list any times.  As I mentioned, we got there before 11, but they weren't open yet and their signs didn't give any hints about tour times, so we decided to hit the cheese factory first.

Faithful readers will no doubt remember that our family has had many exciting times at the cheese factory in the past, including witnessing the famous cheese jam of 2004.  What most of you don't know is that in spite of the fact that I make cheese at home, I've never quite been able to figure out the cheese making process at the cheese factory.  Tim laughed at me when I admitted this to him.  "Are you serious?", he asked.  So we were bound and determined to figure it out this time.  But first, I must mention that the side of the factory that is packaging the cheese had a new wrinkle to it.  They were cutting the cheese into wedges instead of the usual rectangles.  My theory is that this is their "artisan" line of cheeses and they wanted us to believe that they came for a cheese wheel instead of the 40 lb blocks of cheese.  They don't - they just have the cutting wires set at 45 degrees instead of 90.  Fascinating.

But, back to the cheesemaking side.  I've never been able to figure out how the curds become a block of cheese.  Tim pointing out the pressing towers and then I saw the explanatory note that the towers hold several hundred pounds of cheese curds during the 30 minute pressing.  At the end, they drop down and are sliced into the 40 lb blocks that we see being vacuum sealed for aging.  How the curds get into the towers in the first place is still a mystery, so I guess we'll have to go back another time.

After the cheese factory, we went back to Pelican Brewing for lunch.  Apparently they don't yet offer tours, but given that the restaurant is actually in the brewery, we got to see pretty much everything while we ate.  It's counter service with a smaller menu than the Pelican in Cannon Beach (and lower prices!!).  Same beer, of course.

After our burgers and brews, it was time to head to the Tillamook Air Museum.  It's housed in a WW II era blimp hanger, and has a lot of cool old planes.  They have long had a Super Guppy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero_Spacelines_Super_Guppy) parked outside, but they've opened it up to the public so we got to walk around inside it.  It was very cool.

When the boys were young, I used to take them to the museum, and their favorite part was sitting in the cockpit simulators.  It was always hard to get them out.  Well, some things never change!

After the air museum it was time to head back home to Arch Cape.  I read for a while while Tim watched mountain biking videos.  I had a nap too, which is what I do in the afternoon at the coast.  Sadly Josh couldn't get off work early, so he didn't come out to join us for dinner as we had all hoped.  Tim and I decided that if we left right at 5:15, we might get into The Irish Table.  Well, after waiting in a large line of people, we did snag one of the last tables on the outside deck.  It was a bit chilly, but they had blankets and turned on the heater.  Fortunately the sun finally came out and we got warm and had an absolutely wonderful dinner.  I had the halibut, and Tim had the steak (now Wagyu instead of Piedmontese).  He also had the usual chocolate pot for dessert, and I just had a hot biddy.  Yum.  We're back at the house watching the waves, and all is good.  We miss the rest of the family, but we had a great day.


*Rock with a hole in it.