Tillamook Cheese factory

Janice agreed to come with me to the coast so we headed back the way  I had come just a few days earlier with sister, Mary.


The weather was still pretty rainy and foggy but we were determined to make the best of it.


Sigh Me was thrilled--finally someone that would worship her in the manner she feels she most deserves.


The very famous Tillamook Cheese Factory was high on our list of places to stop... 

and it turned out to be a very interesting factory indeed.  

First of all---it's huge.

And I was mesmerized by the gigantic blocks of cheese that just kept rolling down the conveyer belt with no end in sight.

Secondly I was curious to note their windows looking down onto the factory floor were all tinted this strange color...


It sort of gave everything the color of cheese.

 
I bought way more cheese than I can eat in a month but I just couldn't resist. Besides, I remember the days when we women served our cheese hors d'oeuvres while sporting perfectly coifed hair, nylon stockings and sling-back heels. Ah, nostalgia.


All along the coast I saw signs saying 'TSUNAMI DANGER' --which made camping a little uncomfortable at times.  Then we came across this little historical marker...

THE GREAT TSUNAMI OF 1700

"During the 18th century, Native American Villages occupied the mouths of nearly every stream along this coastline--including here at Siletz Bay.  Since native peoples probably had little idea about the relationship between earthquakes and tsunamis, they were taken by surprise in January 1700,  when this beach was hit by a devastating tsunami.  References to great flooding and ground shaking events in the oral traditions of many Pacific Northwest coastal tribes are probably the records of this event. On January 26, 1700, the earth shook violently in the throes of a magnitude 9+ earthquake that occurred along the great offshore fault system.  From northern California to British Columbia, the ocean floor heaved upward approximately 20 feet, and within 10-30 minutes a giant wave up to 50 feet high reached the shore.  The wave probably struck this beach only 20 minutes after the earthquake."

   

I was a little shaken by the idea of a 9+ earthquake.  And a 50' wave would inundate just about every community along this entire coast.  I am sure that sign had nothing to do with it but Janice was beginning to complain of a sore throat.

Okay, I just can't resist the Rhododendrons.
By the third day on the road Janice was clearly getting sick..

..so we turned around and headed back to Salem.  I spent a few more days with her, parked in her driveway and fixed her some of my famous posole (that will cure anything) before I hugged her and her husband Doug, waved goodbye and headed toward Bend, Or. where I would be meeting my cousin, Cherie and her husband, Jerry.