Nehalem Bay State Park, Oregon

We left Troutdale on Wednesday for the 112 mile trip to Nehalem Bay State Park.  It was an uneventful drive with just one short stop.  Mark and Dortha followed us here because Jim & Ellie decided to stay in the Portland area for the rest of the month.  We’ll see them later when they get to the coast at Lincoln City.  We had a fantastic time with them in WA and in OR and can’t wait to meet up with them again.  We have no internet here so I’m posting on Live Writer and will upload on another day.  We are in a heavily wooded area and the satellite dish tried for about four hours to find a gap in the trees to no avail.  We have a few local channels and also our phones work so it’s not like we are totally isolated.  We had a great campfire last night after throwing some burgers and potatoes together for dinner.

The beach here at the park

Our main purpose for staying here was the proximity to the Tillamook Cheese factory.  I found out Mark loves cheese as much as I do!  I was fascinated watching the cheese being made but couldn’t hardly wait to get to the tasting and the gift shop.

Uh oh!!

They also make ice cream there

YAY!!  Samples!!

They also have a cafe so we ALL had to have what else??  Grilled cheese sandwiches and soup.

And then of course we HAD to get our ice cream

We reluctantly left the cheese factory after exhausting everything we could have possible done there.  Dortha had gotten some information on a driving tour of three capes in the area, one with a lighthouse.

The first one was Cape Meares with a lighthouse.

Then it was on to the Octopus Tree

Next was Cape Lookout where we saw these wind surfers

On the way to our last cape, Cape Kiwanda, we saw some sand dunes where people were riding all sorts of things.

We finally made it to our last stop at Cape Kiwanda.  It was getting late in the afternoon and the temps really drop when the sun starts setting.

Now THAT’S a sand dune.  Luckily Dortha didn’t make us climb it.  :)

On the way home we saw a huge herd of elk but since they were all behind a barbed wire fence we figured it must be an elk ranch of some kind.

It was yet another fantastic day with Mark & Dortha and we headed home.  Nobody was hungry for dinner after our late lunch at the cheese factory.  Rod built another campfire and we enjoyed cheese and crackers.