driving along in our automobile. . .no particular place to go

More from the parental visit. . .

Friday continued - After we left the lighthouse we continued to drive north on Highway 101, America's Pacific Coast Scenic Highway. I always love that drive; I never get tired of the view. The scenery is beautiful, and there are places along the way where you can pull off, get out, grab your camera, and soak in all the beauty. Here are some pictures from Kape Kiwanda in Pacific City to prove it. (When my nephew Darick was here last summer, he declared this his favorite beach.) This is one massive rock, a haystack rock, as they're known. Everytime someone sees a picture of a haystack rock, they always want to know if it's the Gooney Rock from the movie The Goonies. There are lots of them along the coast, and I have no idea which one was in the movie, but it's probably not this one. And I really need to rent that movie. It's been forever since I've seen it.

If you look very closely, you might notice that there are people at the top of this dune, just to the right of the trees. That would be one hard climb in soft sand.

Our next stop was in Tillamook at the Cheese Factory. You can take a tour of the cheese being packaged, visit the gift shop, and get some delightfully yummy marionberry pie ice cream (my favorite).

One of the things dad wanted (besides salmon) was fresh cherries. They were actually IN SEASON the week before they came and were much, much cheaper ($1.59 lb.). But we found this fruit stand across the street from the cheese factory, so we stopped and got him some cherries.

One place I really wanted to take my parents to is Ecola State Park. I think it has the most spectacular views of any place I've been on the coast. And that's probably THE Gooney Rock just above my head to the left. (And may I just say, don't we look patriotic?)

One last stop on the way home was at Camp 18, an old logging camp that's now a very popular restaurant and logging museum. We ate at a table that was seated directly below the world's largest ridge pole. If that thing would've come crashing down, we would've been gonners for sure. According to the back of the handy-dandy postcard it says that pole weighed 25 tons after it was cut and is 85 ft. long. We do grow big trees out in these parts.

Here's mom with Smoky the Bear, who's still helping to prevent forest fires, even though he is carved out of wood.