Summer Vacation, Part 2

Our first stop near the coast was the Tillamook Cheese Factory! It was actually a really fun place to stop and, not surprisingly, a hit with the kids. They have a cute self-guided tour with views of the factory floors and then you can stop and eat all the dairy you want . For us, this consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and ice cream for dessert. It was a little alarming for this health care worker to see the quantities of ice cream being consumed there...when did our culture decide that a pint of ice cream in a giant waffle cone equaled one "serving?" Scary.Cora gave Tillamook the thumbs up!After our visit with the cows, we turned south on Hwy 101, which is an amazing drive in itself that we highly recommend. Both kids took great naps and missed a lot of the scenery, but it made for a peaceful afternoon! We stayed in a small town just north of the dunes. Our first afternoon, we had just enough time to explore the pools at low tide:

Locally made fish & chips for dinner that night -yum!

We got really lucky and had sun the next day for our beach excursion. Cora was thrilled to dip her toes in the water:

We essentially had the beach to ourselves, which I think Larson regarded as the world's largest sandbox. We dug, poured, dumped, looked for shells, crabs and driftwood, ran waves and got covered in sand. It was great!

Cora making a break for it:

We visited another, more rocky, beach that afternoon. Larson and Brett climbed out on the rocks for a better view. It was a bit foggy, but actually still pretty nice. More local food for dinner: delicious lasagne with blackberry pie for dessert. (can you tell food is important to me? :)

The next morning, we departed for our final destination: Crater Lake National Park. It's a beauty. Not so easy to get there, but the drive was very scenic and worth it. Lots of places to stop along the way, too. The photo below shows a bit of the scale of the lake, which you really can't even see until you are right upon it. It was "discovered" in the late 1880s, I think, by someone going to California on horseback. Can you imagine just happening upon this? We stayed two nights here in the motor lodge (the more family-friendly option of the two available in the park, besides camping) and were pleasantly surprised at the accommodations & adjacent restaurant.

The next morning, we picked out a reasonable trail for a family hike. This was to be Larson's first "big kid" hike where we expected him to do all the walking. We chose the "Annie Creek" trail, which is a 1.6 mile loop down into a canyon, along a stream and up again. Surpassing our expectations of having to carry him back up to the start, Larson was really excited about the whole thing and led the way most of the time. Brett and I were so proud of him! On the flip side, Cora rode on my back and was not exactly happy to be doing so. Our little social butterfly got excited when we saw other hikers and she had people to wave at, but in between she got a little restless. So we made a few stops :)

Larson was trying to "fish for salmon" in the stream with his stick:

"I love road trips!"

Sadly, our camera battery died just at the end, so this was the best family shot we got on the last day. Overall, a great trip with beautiful scenery. And a lot of geology. :)