Family Reunion, Part 5

Day 4. Tillamook!!

If you haven't been to the Oregon Coast before, we highly recommend going to Tillamook, and visiting the cheese factory. (If you have been there,  then you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about!!)

There's a self-guiding tour -- you can do it at your own pace.

With fun stuff for the kids, too....

And you get to see them cut and package the big blocks of cheese:

But, of course, the best part is the ice cream!!

Indri!!

Shelly's family!

We also stopped by the Country Smoker factory outlet store, and picked up some jerky and pepperoni ropes at really great prices.

Then, almost straight west from Tillamook, is the lighthouse at Cape Meares:

Cape Meares has alternating red panels over the white light there. It's kind of like a code for ships: the red & white light means you're at Cape Meares.

I love random people who offer to take your family photos for you. They know what it's all about!

And what was really random --running into some friends from our home ward .... right there at Cape Meares. What are the chances?

So, you can actually go up into the lighthouse there.... 

Everything is kind of up close and personal. I don't recommend it if you're claustrophobic.

The prisms were amazing. And when I looked up in there, I totally wanted to ask somebody for some fizzy lifting drinks.  Ha!!

We saw these holey rocks there....

And the "Octopus Tree":

You can see why they call it that.

It was fun just to play tourists and do some leisurely sightseeing.

Day 5.

So, for our final day at the coast, Kerry was wise enough to leave that day open.

No plans, no schedules. It was just right.

We did some more shopping, and went down for one last day on the beach.

Darcie and Emma flew a kite.

But the wind was pretty darn strong, so they wound it in...... and then it broke away, and we had to go down the beach to recover it!

We did a lot more digging in the sand.

Did I mention the wind that day?

Well, I'm pretty thankful for sunglasses that keep the wind out of our eyes, and I'm pretty darn sure that my legs came back softer: because they were sandblasted.

No kidding -- sand stings!!

We kind of left our mark on the beach....

But this guy? He was the mastermind....

.... behind this project:

Everyone helped... and we loved the final result: 

(Still wishing we had our other kids there with us for this trip. It was so amazing, and we really missed them!!)

Just in case you're thinking I exaggerated about the wind that day......

That's how Todd found his sandals when we went to leave!!

That evening, we met one last time together, and shared photos of our week with each other. The glass-blown art was brought for show-and-tell, to see if others could guess whose was whose.

The following morning, we loaded up and hit the highway.

As we drove up the Columbia River gorge, we could feel the temperature ratcheting up higher and higher. So long to our cool, breezy days at the coast, and back to the oppressive heat of home!!

But, oh, what a week it was!!

See the other posts on our amazing Family Reunion at the Oregon coast:

Part 1, the beginning

Part 2, Day 1

Part 3, Day 2

Part 4, Day 3

Wrap-Up and Family Photos