Sunday, April 21, 2019

A Celebration and Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! He Is RISEN!

We celebrated today by going to different waterfalls and enjoying God's creation, giving thanks for His blessings. We are in Milwaukie, Oregon, a few miles outside of Portland. Our house is getting some upgrades at Ultimate Airstreams in nearby Clackamas until May 3. So we are at a charming AirBnB. It's a cute little studio apartment that overlooks the river (the Clackamas river). I can take a shower and run the water without worrying about whether or not I will run out!!
bedroom with doors that open onto a patio that overlooks the backyard
through the trees is the river

view from the futon/couch
the TV has Netflix, Hulu, all sorts of stuff!

kitchen

even a full-sized washer/dryer!
I won't know what to do with myself....washing clothes on demand!

We took our anniversary present (aka, our new truck) down the road to get Line-X done and an auxillary fuel tank installed. Now we can tow upwards of 1200 miles. Look out! The tank was also Line-x'd, and boy, does it look sharp! (the tank is under the back window).

And this was all in the first week!
So our waterfall drive looked like this:
Willamette Falls
2nd largest to guess who? Niagara Falls (American Falls)

 
Here's what it sounds like coming down 242 feet:
Wahkeena Falls

Multnomah Falls 

 
Horsetail Falls

Bridal Veil Falls

LaTourell Falls

The Columbia River Gorge

Seeing all that nature really worked up an appetite; and the only thing that could quench it was a lamb gyro from Gyro House in Beaverton (the best)!

We had a really great day celebrating everything and enjoying nature. I hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday: and remember that the Lord is Risen and He is ALIVE! Y'all come back, and He is too! 😉💟

Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Planes, A Train, and other stuff

Hi all, Welcome to

which has been transformed into this place

It was built to house dirigibles (blimps) to look out for German U-boats during WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is an airship hangar, one of two. The other one burned down. And the unique thing about it:  the skeleton is made of wood with a metal shell. When you walk in, you can smell the wood. It is truly amazing! The reason it was made of wood.....they were using all of the steel for the warships and airplanes! And it was abundant here in Oregon and Washington. Tillamook was picked as one of 3 sites on the Pacific Coast. The other 2 were in......California!


the "bones" of the place

It was built to house 7 airships; and when they were on patrol, no ships were lost to enemy fire or torpedoes. No airships were lost, either. One airship was lost while on a routine patrol due to a malfunction. Once the hangars were no longer needed, the hangars were used for the logging industry. Now, it houses the museum.

Here are some of the interesting planes that we saw

Are you thinking of renting "Top Gun?"


This baby saw action in WW2, Korea, and Vietnam



Some other interesting notes:



Again, another self-guided tour. It starts with a visit to the video room, where you see a 20-minute video on how the place got its start. Then you walk around and visit the planes and different things around. I got to see my train (they brought the logs in from the neighboring forests)
I'm a sucker for a big piece of steel

A WW2 air raid shelter, complete with 4 bunk beds

even the Army was here!

Ladies, who's not a sucker for a man in uniform??!!

And don't forget the womens' contribution!

So it was a great visit. The cost was relatively inexpensive, $10.50 each; but we got a discount (retired teacher and federal worker). So if you're in the area, come on down. Y'all come back!😉


Say Cheese, Please!

Hi all, welcome to
Tillamook, Oregon! There is a cow on the front because it is home to the co-op of dairy farmers that make Tillamook cheese and ice cream. It is also orange, the color of its famous cheddar. We took a tour of the factory Monday.


The cows are pampered and well-taken-care-of in Tillamook. They have a robotic feeder that pushes the special feed to the cows (there is a board-certified nutritionist that makes sure the feed is great and healthy for the cows); they have a special brush that is automated to brush the cows and get any dirt or flies off of them (apparently the cows love it); AND, they have special beds that the cows lay on so they don't hurt their limbs or such when they lay down (they spend about 60-70% laying down and chewing). Really?? Who knew??!! They also wear special collars that transmit data to the farmer so he can tell if the cows are sick or injured. Amazing! No wonder the commercials show the farmers with smiles on their faces. Looks pretty easy!

So onto the cheddar-making process.



So when Little Miss Muffett was eating her curds and whey, she was actually eating pieces of cheese and drinking the whey (which is not very tasty, by the way). At this point in the process, they add more salt to draw out more whey. The curds are then put into 40-42lb blocks and sealed to be cured.
The warehouse is as long as a football field but 4 times as high. It can store A LOT of cheddar! The cheese is cured as short as 6 weeks to as long as 6 years. Then it goes to the cutting room.



This part was pretty neat; I didn't know that. Great quality control! After you visit the process, you go into......The TASTING ROOM! It was simply an area where there were five trays of their most popular flavors, including cheddar cheese curds, and you picked up a cup and got what you wanted (with sterilized tongs of course)! I went back for more curds, YUM! 

Unfortunately, you cannot get free samples of the ice cream. We kept seeing people come out with ice cream; turns out, they were getting the kids' scoops....$2.75 for a cuppa. I passed. So what makes their ice cream better? More cream, not air. When you see the ice cream in the store say "Extra churned" chances are, there's more air. 

So it was a nice little tour; it is self-guided. When you finish the tour upstairs from the tasting room, the stairs lead you downstairs to the shop. They will ship to you if you wish; however, it is 2-day air and costs about $29.95. I found that out the hard way when my mom wanted some delicious cheese. The cheese cost $12; once we factored in shipping, the whole thing was $42. Nah, we passed. It's a nice treat if you're out here. 

There's more to Tillamook than the cheese. See the next post! Y'all come back!😉

Friday, April 5, 2019

A Little Bit of Quirky

Hi all! We decided to visit a little quirky spot called

A vortex is simply a whirlpool of activity. Here, it is weirdness that defies physics. Mr. Lisster tried to figure it out for over 47 years and died trying. There are many optical illusions here, where people appear to be taller when they are shorter and vice versa. But it all comes out on the level (they have levels here to make sure)!

So you start with magnetic north. They explain to you that when you are standing downhill and you look uphill, things appear taller; but the opposite happens at the vortex. When you come here, it seems that you expect a gaping hole and swirling lights. The center of the vortex is this:
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's a tree stump. No, it's not hiding elves or aliens. There is also the famous "Crooked House."

When you step inside, you have to hold onto the rails, because it's a "lean-to." Or in this case, a "lean-in." (bwahahahhaha). But there are strange things that happen in here, too. This gentleman is standing on the only level place in the house. And the broom is plumb with him, too.
Notice the guide has to lean to keep her footing

There was also an experiment with a bottle. You rolled it down the plank, but guess what? It came back! The joke was it was a "returnable bottle." She did it with a golf ball, too, but alas, no video was allowed; it doesn't show well with a still photo.
another picture of the house
It used to be the assayer's cottage for the gold mining

And this guy apparently didn't see the sign:  NO PETS! Please, guys, let's keep the pets at home. They have no clue about sightseeing, so don't bring them. That's just my 2 cents' worth.

So that was our experience at the Vortex. This is our last day here. We head further up Oregon toward Tillamook for another week to check out Cheese Country. Some other cool things we saw and did

Table Rock

Mt McKinley

Cloud Angels

Our anniversary present

We had a lot of fun here; met some other Airstreamers; in fact, they stayed across the street and one site down, so it was a classy joint! Had some rain, but it went away later in the day. Great park, great area. Y'all come back! 😉