Trekkers

GOING COASTAL: We continue our look back to last week's adventures afield.  For a large part of our journey, we trekked down Highway 101, which often affords lovely views of the Pacific Ocean.

At the stop above, we learned that we have a gentleman named Oswald West to thank for access to the coastline in to perpetuity. 

A Democrat and the 14th governor of Oregon, West established Oregon's beach highway law, proclaiming the entire Pacific coastline to the high tide line to be a public highway, thereby preserving scenery and beach access for future generations.

What a swell thing to do, right? 

On the highway just south of Cannon Beach, we saw a number of monolithic rocks. Haystack Rock is the most famous and biggest. Below is a photo of one of the 'smaller' rocks, dotted with shore birds.

We read with great interest the tale of "Terrible Tille," a lighthouse built on one of the monoliths near Haystack Rock. 

Just barely visible in the photo below, the lighthouse was built on a chunk of basalt 1.2 miles offshore of Tillamook Head.

Conditions were treacherous and it took more than 575 days to build the lighthouse over 575 days, starting in 1879. 

The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1957. It got 'new life' in 1980, when it became a warehouse for cremains, but that license was revoked in 1999. Now "Terrible Tilly" just sits there on the monolith, with a few guests on board for all eternity.

Further down the highway, we arrived at the headquarters of Tillamook Cheese (and ice cream)!

 Many photo opps were on site. 

The view of the factory floor was super interesting. We stood and watched for several minutes. 

 After the factory view, we enjoyed some samples. 

Here's CJ's summary of our part of our adventure:

Recently, my family went on a road trip down to Siletz, Oregon, to see my grandparents. On the way there, we made several stops, One of which was in Tillamook, Oregon, home of the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. Tillamook Dairy is a creamery, most well known for their cheese, with their cheddar variation being the 2nd best selling cheddar cheese brand in the world. The Cheese Factory contains a visitor center, where visitors can enter and begin a self-guided tour of the factory. The tour was relatively short, with the primary stop being windows where you could see two different parts of the cheese production process. In the first large room, the cheese ingredients were mixed together, with the curds being put together, and the excess liquid being removed from the tub. After binding, the curds would then be packed into 40-pound blocks, and sent to age in the warehouse.

After the cheese has significantly aged, the blocks get sent to the next room. In the second room, the cheese blocks would be cut into smaller blocks (the ones you see on the store shelf,) with small slices being cut off the top to be put into slice packets. The smaller blocks are then manually put into plastic packages, whereafter they go to a peculiar-looking "octopus" machine. According to a sign at the factory, the "octopus" looking vacuum sealers give each packet an airtight seal. Packages are run through a heat shrink tunnel, then pass through a metal detector for safety. The now-airtight cheese packages are then sent to the next room, unseen to people taking the self-guided tour.

I enjoyed my visit to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, and I recommend a visit for anybody travelling on the Oregon coast.

NEAR NEWPORT: On Wednesday, we reached Siletz, Oregon, home of beloved Nonnie and Bops. The grounds of their home were beautiful, as always. 

 Loved this fern seeming to emerge from a moss-covered tree trunk. 

 While checking out the orchard, we got a mini lesson in grafting. 

We headed back up to Seattle on Friday, stopping briefly in Puyallup for the Washington State Spring Fair. 

Good times. :)

Playing Catch Up

LOOK BACK: We were on the road all week last week, and posts were from my phone and not complete. I won't attempt to recount every stop we made or thing we learned, but will try to catch up on some of the highlights.

Monday night we spent at Dash Point State Park, in a cute little cabin. 

We did a little it of hiking there, in a forest along Puget Sound.

From there, we headed south to Seaside, via Astoria. We just *had* to stop at the lovely Dismal Nitch. 

An inhospitable spot on the north side of the Columbia River near its mouth to the Pacific Ocean, explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent a few miserable days here in 1805. While here, the bedraggled Corps of Discovery had run out of fresh food and their close were literally rotting off their backs. Ugh.  Winds here are take-your-breath-away strong.

The park gets its name from Clark's journal entry: "About 3 oClock the wind lulled and the river became calm, I had the canoes loaded in great haste and Set Out, from this dismal nitich where we have been confined for 6 days…"

From there, it was on to Oregon via the Astoria Bridge. The 4.1 mile-long bridge features a main span 1,232 feet in length, the longest "continuous truss" in the world.

Our quick stop in Astoria included a visit to The Arc arcade. What a great place! Dozens of the retro games we love, many of them set to free play!

We spent Tuesday night in Seaside, Ore., at the very-not-plush-but-clean-and-cheap City Center Motel.  It was a short block's walk to the beach - and the Seaside Aquarium! - from there.

Imagine our delight when we discovered a swingset right there on the beach!

 
We didn't enter the Seaside Aquarium, but we did ogle the gray whale skeleton in its window.

I'll let Annabelle tell you a bit more about our Seaside stop ...

Seaside has a beautiful beach. When we visited, the tide was very low. In the middle of the beach, they had a nice little swing-set that actually went fairly high. We noticed brown stuff in the water, but the aquarium next door let us know that this stuff wasn’t oil or sewage- it was something called a diatom! Diatoms are single cell plants that are related to plankton. They are a very important food source in the ocean that multiply in winter and early summer, which is why there was so much brown in the water. We didn’t go inside the aquarium, but they did have a window displaying multiple marine life skeletons such as a seal, a porpoise, and even a young grey whale! It was really pleasant and not windy, which is unusual for the Oregon Coast in April. It was fun being in Seaside.

We continued southbound, and found ourselves in Rockaway Beach eventually. We were cruising along at Highway 101 speed when our heads did a swivel at the sight of a ginormous corn dog atop a roadside restaurant.

Not only that, but I was pretty sure I saw an amusement ride on the north side of the place - a corn dog with a saddle. I ordered Christian to turn the car around!

Sure 'nuff, there was a coin operated corn dog! We scrounged up two quarters and the kids gave it a go.

Amazing. :)

Here's a short video of the corn dog rodeo ..
https://youtu.be/dfeQQ6UGiu0


And here's a short video about the establishment, which has only been open about a month ... 
https://youtu.be/zi_2Rp5SM8c

Roadies

SPRING BREAK: We took a lovely little junket 'round the Pac NW this week. We'll blog about it in retrospect and in greater detail next week, but for now, here are a few pics of the first couple of days. 

Here was our home Monday night - a lovely little cabin at Dash Point State Park. 

It was bright and inviting and we talked about how living in a tiny home such as this one (made in Centralia, WA) would be totally doable.

We found ourselves in Tacoma on Monday night for an Iron Maiden concert. Head banging heavy metal at its best! I'll never forget the first time I heard their music - it was past midnight on a Sunday night in 1982. At that time, Portland's KGON played entire albums after midnight on Sunday. It was a great time to engage the cassette tape recorder (state of the art back then).

When Iron Maiden's  "The Number of the Beast" broadcast, it sounded unlike anything I'd heard before. A new wrinkle to rock-n-roll.

The kids and I dropped Christian off at the Tacoma Dome for the show and drove back to the cabin to wait it out. We stopped to look back and I love the juxtaposition of the serene scene here and the Dome. Can you spot it among the port's heavy equipment?

 Above was the view to the east. We had a lovely view to the west, too. 

 A few more road trip photos to come but will park these here. 

Astoria Story

This morning we continued our spring break adventure by pointing the Honda south, toward Seaside.

One must see was a new to us arcade, The Arc. There, we found dozens of arcade games, including iconic Pac Man, Mortal Kombat, Frogger, Super Mario, Donkey Kong and more.

Next stop was the Fort  George new pub.  

Fortunately, for us, it happened to be on a historically significant site - where Fort Astoria was built.  In fact, according to the historical marker on site, we happened to be visiting on the very day the work was begun on the fort in 1811, after John Jacob Astor sent expeditions to seize the mouth of the Columbia River. 

Just before crossing into Oregon and Astoria today, we stopped at Dismal Nitch, a windy, inhospitable spot song the north shore of the mighty Columbia River. None of us could imagine canoeing in the area. 

Road Test

We're taking a little spring break junket and we're presently in a cozy cabin at Dash Point State Park along Puget Sound near Tacoma. I'm posting from my phone for the first time and it's a bit of a chore and very sketchy. 

Below are photos of a Puget Sound sunset, the rustic amphitheater at the campground (definitely not quite ready for prime time) and part of the memorable lunch we had at Southern Kitchen, a Tacoma restaurant featured on the Food Network show "Diners Drive-Ins and Dives."

Of Sports and Space

HOME SWEET HOME:  Friday afternoon, we made our way to our home away from home, Safeco Field, for the Seattle Mariners' home opener.

We caught a bus from our neighborhood and arrived in the stadium district about 3:30. Then, it was time to claim a spot on the sidewalk to call our home for the next hour-plus, until the gates opened. 

Once inside the stadium, we made a beeline for the 'front row' along the bullpens. When we arrived, the Oakland As were taking batting practice. 

And we're happy to report, it was a banner day for balls flying our way!

We nearly missed four of five or so that sailed near us, but one ball came right at us. As in, right toward CJ's face. In fact, that's how he 'caught' it. Here is a photo re-enactment of that moment. ...

The 'best' part was right after it ricocheted off his face, Annabelle fielded it and triumphantly, jubilantly yelled, "I caught it! I caught it!" :)

Annabelle was also lucky enough to be handed a BP ball by a King County Sheriff's deputy patrolling the pen pre-game. Since we already had a ball, we gifted that one to a 'young' man (30-ish) standing near us. He was SO happy, and said it was the first game ball he'd ever had. We watched as he immediately posted it to every social media platform known to mankind. ;)

Pregame fun continued with Mariners legend Ken Griffey Junior taking the field to throw out the first pitch. 

 A new banner was unveiled at Safeco, counting down Junior's induction into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. 

The guys in white in the photo above are Dave Valle (above the 1), Jay Buhner (the bald guy above the zero) and Dan Wilson (above the 7).

Junior tossed the first pitch to catcher (and future Hall of Famer) Felix Hernandez. They hugged it out afterward. 

Not to be forgotten was the pre-game salute to Dave Henderson - the FIRST player ever drafted to the Seattle Mariners! Dave is gone way too soon, stricken by a heart attack at age 58, during this last off season. 

Had to get a snap of the very first pitch of the 2016 season, of course. It was a strike, from King Felix. The photo was taken from the second to last row of the stadium, by the way.

SPEAKING OF SPORTS: Sunday afternoon, we headed to Queen Anne Bowl to watch a lacrosse match. 

 Christian's brother was on a team from Portland, up playing in a tournament.  

A super entertaining match, it came down to the last couple of minutes. We learned a lot about lacrosse in an hour or so!

UP ON THE ROOF(DECK): Friday, the weather was lovely, so we thought we'd take to the outdoors to get some exercise in. We used Annabelle's laptop to follow along to a kids' yoga lesson on YouTube.

 Kirby was keenly interested in getting into the act. Below is her version of 'downward dog.'

UPS AND DOWNS: We watched Friday afternoon as SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a Dragon full of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. Fortunately, the launch went without a hitch and the capsule is now attached to the ISS. But perhaps even more exciting was what happened back on Earth not long after the launch.  The first stage of Falcon 9 attempted an experimental landing on the “Of Course I Still Love You” droneship (barge) in the Atlantic Ocean.

You can watch the AMAZING video of the history-making event here:

https://youtu.be/sYmQQn_ZSys



The entire Webcast of the launch is available online, as well. 
https://youtu.be/7pUAydjne5M

In not-so-great space-related news, NASA has let the public know that during a scheduled contact on Thursday, April 7, mission operations engineers discovered that the Kepler spacecraft (deep space telescope) was in Emergency Mode (EM). Per NASA, "EM is the lowest operational mode and is fuel intensive. Recovering from EM is the team's priority at this time."

Due to the emergency, NASA now has priority access to ground-based communications at the agency's Deep Space Network. Currently, Kepler is nearly 75 million miles from Earth. At that distance, communications are slow. NASA reports that even at the speed of light, it takes 13 minutes for a signal to travel to the spacecraft and back.



It appears that the spacecraft entered EM not long before mission operations began the maneuver to orient the spacecraft to point toward the center of the Milky Way for the K2 mission's microlensing observing campaign.

Hopefully engineers can get Kepler back on track. The craft completed its prime mission in 2012, detecting nearly 5,000 exoplanets, of which, more than 1,000 have been confirmed. In 2014, it began a new mission called K2, searching for exoplanets while introducing new research opportunities to study young stars, supernovae, and many other astronomical objects.