We capped off our Portland visit with breakfast at our hotel, The Inn at Northrup Station, before jumping on the road towards the city of Tillamook. About 2 months prior, I had booked tour reservations for 10:15 at Tillamook Creamery. One thing I must mention, on 90% of our road trips we schedule some type of factory tour. Our daughter, now 16, has always enjoyed these tours and they have become a key part of our trips.
Tillamook is about an hour and a half drive from Portland and we arrived at the Creamery around 9:45. When we arrived there was already a considerable line outside (but we found parking extremely easy). As we jumped to the end of the line, the smell of cow poop was significant. Without a doubt, it is evident that Tillamook has a huge cow population.
The doors opened at 10 am and we immediately went upstairs as we were unsure where we needed to go to check in for our tour. Once upstairs, we could look down through the viewing windows and could see cheese in production. We headed back downstairs and and found ourselves in a huge gift shop full of everything Tillamook Creamery. We asked the staff where the tours started and they directed us to behind the stairs for check in. We checked in and at 10:10 we were given an earpiece with a transmittable speaker.
There were 13 people in our tour group. We started upstairs where the tour guide took us through the cheese making process. At each stop, our guide made sure to give us pertinent details (with a bit of humor) and allowed time for questions. The left side of the tour was geared towards the making of cheese while the right side of the observation deck was focused on the packing process.
It is important to note, that this tour is not behind the scenes. In fact, the viewing area is open to everyone for free. During the tour, there are folks not on the tour all around. However, because you are wearing the earpiece, others are not able to jump into your tour.
At the conclusion of the tour we were guided into what looked like a conference room. This room had really nice tables and chairs as well as television. On the tables were trays with cheese samples.
Individually, our guide discussed the cheese samples and the food profiles and alcohol selections that would be best to go with each cheese. We started by sampling the cheese curds and then worked our way to the 2012. At the end of the tour our guide offered us a coupon for the Maker's Reserve which can be purchased in their market/gift shop.
At the end of our tour/samples, we made our way across the upstairs area and got in the line for more free samples. Here, we were able to get another cheese curd and small packages/slices of cheddar cheese. From there we walked down the side stairs and made our way into the snack bar/lunch line. The line was moderate in length and appeared to be moving rather quickly. We ordered a 1/4 Hawaiian pizza, a 1/4 pepperoni pizza, and cheese curds with ranch dressing. I also got a beer. Our food took some time to come out....the fried cheese curds came out first and they were good. Our pizza arrived and it was hot and crisp....it was also much larger than we expected. It was 2 big square slices per order. In fact, the 3 of us couldn't eat it all.
By the time we finished lunch, the lunch line had grown considerably. In fact, it was now all the way to the cheese coolers in the gift shop. The population of visitors to the creamery had now grown 5 fold since our arrival at 9:45. We wanted to get some ice cream but their inside booth was closed and the line for ice cream was formed outside. (The ice cream booth is double-sided and can serve both inside and outside.) It was pretty chilly so we decided to do some shopping in the gift shop (where a Tillamook sweatshirt was one of the things purchased...you can see it here).
While we were waiting to purchase our gift shop goodies, Avery went ahead to get in the ice cream line since she was the one wanting to see if the cream was better than Salt & Straw (which you can read here). Once we made our purchases we joined her......we waited about 30 minutes but realized that the line was getting nowhere. It was moving incredibly slow and we realized that our time would be better spent elsewhere considering we were at least expecting to wait about 45 more minutes (if not longer).
So, we headed back out to the parking lot and there were cars and tour buses as far as the eyes could see. In fact, folks were like piranhas as they were waiting for us to leave our parking space. We threw our cheese slices in our Titan Backpack cooler and hit the road heading north to Cannon Beach.
Of all of our travels, we have never visited the west coast. We've never seen the Pacific Ocean. (Growing up in the South, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic ocean were our ocean experiences) So, when I could see it over the trees (as we were making our way up Highway 101) my heart started racing. And once I could really see it, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was more beautiful than I ever imagined. We stopped at one of the many pull-overs to take it all in. The smell, the sounds, the wind....
Our trip resumed, heading north to Cannon Beach. One of the "must sees" on our agenda was Haystack Rock. We were told to go at low tide so we could experience the tidal pools. Unfortunately, timing wasn't on our side for low tide. In Cannon Beach we found a parking space near the municipal building about 1/2 mile from Haystack. We found a public walkway to the beach.....taking off our shoes so we could feel the heat from the sand. This was very much needed since it was so cool and extremely windy, and we made our way over the dunes to Haystack Rock.
As you can see, no tidal pools for us to play in. However, it was totally worth the stop and visit to this quaint beach town.
Our daughter is a competitive gymnast and she needed a little gym time. We had previously set up a training time at Infinity Gymnastics in Seaside. We had a few minutes to kill and realized that we all needed some warmer clothes, so we made a pit stop at the Seaside Outlet Mall prior to Avery's practice. While there weren't many stores that appealed to us, we did find some things in the Eddie Bauer store.
After Avery's practice (thanks again Infinity Gymnastics), we made our way north on a mission to see the Peter Iredale Shipwreck. The shipwreck is accessible via Fort Stevens State Park. There is a parking lot beachside and you can literally walk to the shipwreck in a few short minutes. Again, the tide was up so we couldn't walk right out to the wreckage but it was still a very cool thing to see. Knowing that this thing ran ashore in 1906 and still has remnants is pretty amazing and puts into perspective how powerful the ocean can be.
Our journey continued on with a drive into Astoria. You can read more about it here:
The Travel Gritty: Tillamook Creamery was well worth the $15 fee for the guided tour and tasting. Highly recommend you getting there early or expect a crowd. If you plan on eating lunch or getting ice cream, plan accordingly. We went on a Monday and it was incredibly crowded by the time we left.
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