The rest of the story...going home.

Continuing on with the highlights of our trip to Oregon...if you missed the first few installments you'll have to scroll back through the posts. I assure you it's very exciting. (haha) Saturday we went to Cannon Beach. On the way we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory in, where else, Tillamook. I had forgotten my camera so Jeremy was the only photographer.
No surprise that the only picture of the Cheese Factory was in the parking lot and was of these Ferraris. There were several of them traveling together and I think the boys enjoyed seeing these more than anything esle. The factory was fun and interesting. We got to watch through big windows above the floor of the factory as they cut and packaged 20 pound blocks of cheese. My Dad and I bought some Cheese Curds to snack on the rest of the day...it's tradition.

(Ally goat)

Just a few miles down the road from the Tillamook Factory is the Blue Heron Cheese Factory. It's smaller and specializes in more fancy kinds of cheeses. It also has a petting zoo with goats, sheep, peacocks, ducks, geese, and a few donkeys. The kids enjoyed seeing the animals.

(Julia, Me, Ally, Gage and Dad)

We arrived at Cannon Beach, which much to my kids surprise, is not like the California Coast. The water is very cold, it's overcast and foggy, and the sand is even different. The kids did enjoy some of the differences.

(Julia and Me...Haystack Rock in the background)

Julia loved the water and didn't seem bothered that is was so cold. She kept trying to run into the waves so I made her hold my hand. Even then she kept pulling me to try to go into the water. When I was little we did play in the water some. Usually just up to our knees which was as much as we could stand. The thing about the Oregon beach is that you are fine playing in the shallow water as soon as your legs go numb. You can't swim out into the ocean like you can in California unless you have a wet suit or a death wish. Maybe some macho boys would do it but they'd have to come in to shore pretty quickly.

(Ally and Jack discovering treasure)

Jack and Ally found all different kinds of shells, jelly fish, and big sand crabs. They were very excited about their finds.

(The Family)

As we were leaving the beach we saw some people pointing out into the surf, so we looked and saw a whale that was surfacing and blowing water every few minutes. It was too hard to get a picture, but it was a nice end to our beach day.
Monday was a day for the little kids. Jeremy and Gage hung out at the house and Rich and I took the three little ones to Enchanted Forest. There are no amuzement parks in Oregon so this little place is all we had. It's been there since I was little. I remember going to it when I was Jack's age. It's got characters and scenes from nursery rhymes and stories that the kids can look at. It also has some fun things to do like the Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe...it's a huge boot that has the old kind of burlap sack fun house slides coming out of the bottom. We had to go on that many times and had to force the kids to move on.
Ally, Jack and Julia were so excited to see everything. They crowded around the window to see into the Three Bears' cottage.
They loved the candy house from Hansel and Gretel but the girls were a little affraid of the scene inside with the old witch.

(Ally at the Keyhole)

The kids went into Alice and Wonderland's rabbit hole, which is a tunnel through a log and underground, and came out the keyhole just like Alice.

(Ally, Jack, and Julia in the witch's mouth)

Then there's the coolest looking one, the Witch. You can walk into her mouth, climb some stairs to see out her eyes, and slide down the back of her hair. Since I was there last they added a Haunted House...Jack and Ally braved it with Rich and said it was the scariest place they'd ever been. They started to cry as soon as they got through the front door so poor Rich had to hurry them through the rest to get out as fast as possible. Ally lost her flip flop at one point so they had to back track a little, but they made it out in one piece. They also added a small rollercoaster similar (on a much smaller scale) to the Matterhorn at Disneyland, and there's a cute little log ride. It was a fun day and even now Julia still asks when we can go again.

(Grandpa and Grandma saying goodbye)

Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Dad and Netta. Most of the kids were so sad to leave and we promised to visit again soon.

(Rich and the kids)

On our way home we stopped at Crater Lake. We had been driving for several hours...you can tell how much the kids appreciated the detour. Rich and I loved it. The water was so blue and beautiful!

(Jack, Me and Ally)

We stayed the night somewhere in Central California then got up and headed for San Francisco. We stopped to see Sarah, my sis-in-law, who is expecting their first baby shortly. The live in a cute little appartment on a hill just outside San Francisco. It was fun to see her, too bad Jeff was at work so we didn't see him. Sarah gave us some good advice about getting to the Golden Gate so off we went.

It was foggy, windy and cold but it was fun to see the Golden Gate and drive over it. We are planning another trip to San Francisco when we can take more time to see everything but Jack really wanted to see the Golden Gate, so we did this for him. We had a good and short time there, the last stop of our trip. Everyone enjoyed the trip but we were all happy to get home.