Running A-moo-k in Tillamook

Best brekkie in town!

Day 2 of our Portland road trip and, after the excitement of the previous evening's Wildlife Bingo Smackdown, it was time for breakfast to refuel.  We were directed to a place called Lazy Susan's which - according to the lady at the front desk - had the best breakfast in town.  So, off we trotted to find that, yep, it was indeed the hottest (meal) ticket in Cannon Beach - it actually had a wait of a half hour (how Manhattan!), so we duly signed up, went off and got coffee while we waiting.

Holy cow.  Breakfast was a-maz-ing!!  I had the eggs benedict and it was just superb.  The eggs were cooked perfectly - all squirty yellow eggy goodness.  Mm-mm-mm.  Lori had an omelette that was also very very tasty and, again, the mimosas were top notch.  We'd also been advised to buy the special muffin of the day - today's was Huckleberry (I think), a big fat, dense muffin crammed full of juicy dark fruits.  We got one each to go, in the highly unlikely event that we would ever feel hungry again in our lifetimes.

Today's itinerary was to take us a little further down the coast, before then turning inland and heading back towards Portland.

So the drive was simply stunning again.  We were driving down on Highway 101, driving through an assortment of cool seaside towns, right by the side of the ocean as well as through forests and beautiful valleys.  For part of the time, the road was parallel to an old railway line - that must have been a fab trip in its heyday when it was fully operational.  It was a little sad to see some of the old railway cars just rusting away on the rails, but at least a part of the railway was still operational and you could catch a scenic train for a 3 hr round trip from Wheeler to Garibaldi.

http://www.ocsr.net

The fresh sea air must have speeded our digestion because, amazingly enough, after about an hour and a half's driving, the siren call of the still-warm muffins was just too enticing to resist.  Not sure it was the smartest idea to attempt to eat one while driving as the berries turned out to be larger and splodgier than I expected, so my fingers had soon been stained a bright purple and i was probably wearing as much as I'd eaten (Loopy can relate...).  But it was yummy - and very filling, so no danger of us starving on this trip!

Rather lovely scenery.  AND it had stopped raining
for a millisecond.  Bonus.

I love how the Tsunami is helpfully chasing the
Stick Man into the Tsunami Bar and Grill.

Anyway, our route was taking us through the town of Tillamook (not TillaNOOK, as Lori kept calling it!).  For my non-US blogwatchers, you probably won't know that Tillamook is a big dairy brand out here in the US (like, say, DairyCrest and Davidstow cheddar in the UK), so for a cheese-a-vore such as myself, a visit to the cheese factory simply Had To Be Done.

And so it was.

We didn't actually stay all that long as it was VERY crowded with a lot of VERY large people (obviously they needed to step away from the cheese a bit more) but it was a fun diversion for a half hour.  Because it was so crowded, we didnt do the self-guided tour, but just honed in on the free cheese samples (squeaky cheese!!) and the Loaf Bus.  As you do.  Here are some highlights from our little cheese-fest...

Bright orange bus shaped like a loaf.
 Just add two crazy peeps and serve.

I want one!!

Squeeeeky cheese.
Made from mice*.

The Astounding Wall of Cheese.
That's a lotta cheese toasties right there

It had to be done.  It only took me three photos
to realize my face wasn't going to fit in through the hole
(hence my obvious disappointment)

Even their sign was actually MADE out of cheese!!
Amazing!!!**

After we'd chomped our way through the free cheese samples and avoided the enormous ice-cream parlor, it was time to get back on the road and head to our destination for the evening, Sauvie Island.  Sauvie Island, originally Wapato island, is approximately 10 miles north of Portland, so was a perfect mid-point to stop for heading back to town.  It sounded interesting in that its the largest island in the Columbia River and one of the largest islands in the US.  Located at the junction of the Columbia River to the east, Willamette river to the south and the Multnomah channel to the west, the island's northern half is a wildlife refuge, so i figured there would be great opportunities for some great wildlife photo ops.  It's also pretty close to Mount St. Helens, the now-extinct (hopefully) volcano that exploded so spectacularly back in the 80's.

Here's where things started to get interesting.  We stuck to the main highway, Highway 6, for most of the drive, then consulted the GPS on my iPhone to navigate the last bit to Sauvie Island itself.  I plugged in the route, it gave me several options, so i picked one and off we went.

I guess I forgot to tell it I was in a car.

OMG.  The "road" we ended up on took us deep, deep into the forest where it became smaller and smaller, and more and more rustic until it ended up quite literally as a gravel track.  The "road" was completely unpaved and one of those annoyingly crunchy ones where, even when crawling along at 10mph, it sounds as if you're in a popcorn machine, as the little gravel chips fly up from the road and pepper the underside of your car!  Its EXACTLY the place where you'd expect to be chopped up by a friendly murderer - and the arse-end of nowhere wilderness that you just knew people would ask "what on earth were they doing there?" as your wildlife nibbled-bodies would be discovered some months later.  To add to the fun, the fuel gauge was dipping below a quarter full and my phone, having helpfully navigated us into the Arse End Of Nowhere, decided to run out of battery and die.  Gee.  Thanks.  Fortunately, Lori came to the rescue with a in-car charger, plus we had a bag of cheese curds to stave off starvation (as well as throw at any potential murderers in hopes of distracting them "That cheese is squeaking! I must investigate rather than hack these two lost women to pieces"), so fortunately - after about 40mins of crunching our way through the forest, we finally found a road that had the luxury of tarmac, so were able to rejoin civilization!  

I hear ya.
 Try Frizz-Ease serum.  Its awesome for
taming those annoying fly-aways (no pun intended)

Heaving a deep sigh of relief, we rejoined the main highway and, after about another 30mins or so, picked up the signs for the bridge across to Sauvie Island.  On the way, we stopped at a little farm shop to stock up on wine and nibbles for the night, and found another RV park with a cafe, so bought some sandwiches for supper, in case the place next to where we were heading was shut.  We also came across this rather quirky farm with a petting zoo, containing some imaginatively named animals.  Betty the rooster was particularly entertaining.  I could certainly identify with the Bad Hair day Betty was having.

We finally - after spending most of the day driving - found our RV park where we were going to spend the night in an Airstream trailer!!  I have always wanted to stay in one of these, so i was very excited to have found it on Air B&B and that the owner would let us rent it for just one night, when the minimum was usually two.  Here's the link on Air B&B, with much better pics than the ones I took:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/433736

I love Airstreams.  They just look so damned cool.  I guess its cos its all silver and shiny ("Ooo, look!  Silver shiny things!") and I'm easily swayed by stuff like that (I know, I know - I've worked in marketing and advertising for most of my career and I fall for all the tricks!).  But - at the end of the day - honestly, you're still just staying in a caravan!!  I think if I owned an Airstream, I would make sure it was as funky on the inside as its cool on the outside - but this one was very traditional.  It was absolutely spotlessly clean and everything was in perfect condition, but it just didnt have the character inside as you'd expect from the outside.  But, nonetheless, it was one to check off the Bucket List and, after our Terror Ride of Hell through the Forest of Murderers, it was good to just reach our destination.

After we dumped our stuff, we decided to go explore.  Lori had got chatting to a VERY attractive young man*** who was giving her the lay of land and it turns out there was pretty much bugger all to do on Sauvie Island.  And, even in the course of doing bugger all and seeing even less, you had to buy a day-pass to park anywhere - what a bloody swindle!!!  We headed out in the M&M Mobile with the vague hope of seeing something interesting (allegedly there's a lighthouse at the tip of the island) but all we saw were lots of Oregon police in their cars (I guess cracking down on the parking fee-dodgers), an abundance of Porta-Potties (literally one every 500 yards - what's up with that?) and some trees.  We couldn't see Mount St. Helens, we couldn't see the light house, we couldn't see across the bay or the beach, we could see bugger all.  So all in all, Sauvie Island was rather a let-down and a bit of a waste of a day - but live and learn.  I guess I was just grateful I couldn't also see the nudist beach - that probably would have been the final straw for my fragile mental state.

So, all there was left to do was return to the Airstream, crack open the Pinot Gris, chill out and get ready for the Special Tillamook Edition of Wildlife Bingo.  Here's how it shook down this time.....

Yes.  That really is a bag of Beaver Poop and a Harry Potter
chocolate frog.  The stakes have never been higher.

First round down, Lori wins the chocolate frog and the badge.
 Third game in, and i score with the Pirate frog magnet.
#winning

It just had to be done.  
Yes, they really are Tillamook Loaf Bus earrings.
 And mighty fine they are too...

And that was that.  The end of our second day's adventure and off to Portland tomorrow!!  Whoo-hoo!!

* not true
**  also a complete porky-pie
*** yep, not true either