On our second day in Portland, D and I separated from Brother and drove around randomly in search of the coast. Everything from Day 2 was accidentally discovered as we didn't adhere at all to the trajectory D had outlined on the map.
Ummm....
... we found a place to buy guitars! And guns!
We were thrilled when we happened upon Cape Meares.
Cape Meares was very quiet and absolutely breathtaking.
There was a cool lighthouse.
There is a little forest/picnic area at Cape Meares. Here are some trees and also some more trees:
This is "The Octopus Tree" - the eight cancerous stumps are attributed to wind, but seriously, how is that possible? No other trees in the area had eight cancerous stumps.
Cape Meares was gorgeous. We did a lot of skipping around and lying on the grass, enjoying the clean air. After walking around for about an hour, we decided to hit the road in search of food. You can imagine our ecstasy when we accidentally drove right into...
... the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
D and I are both insane for cheese, as well as for factories, thanks, on my part, to the saxophone factory segment on Sesame Street.
You can give yourself a tour of the factory for free. There are observation decks above the factory. Needless to say we spent about two hours staring down at the processes. It was amazing. Quite possibly the best thing ever.
I think that they actually make the cheese in the morning, so we weren't able to see that. We were only able to see the packaging of the cheese.
Yes, those are huge blocks of cheese.
You could sample cheese curd in the store.
The store has tons of cheese, as wells as gifts.
There is also Tillamook ice cream, but we didn't get to see that being made.
We did, however, try the pistachio (ew) and blueberry cheesecake flavored ice creams. The blueberry cheesecake flavored ice cream tasted exactly like blueberry cheesecake, and was therefore the most wonderful thing I have ever consumed.
On our way back to the hotel, we encountered more amazing coast.
But the best was yet to come. We accidentally came upon this...
... which turned out to be the beach from Goonies!
It's called Cannon Beach, and the tallest rock is around 250 feet tall.
It was low tide so we could walk right up to the rocks.
I think I was the happiest I've ever been on this beach. It was so majestic, so unexpected, so serene. It's been a year for amazing sights - Stonehenge, Chichen Itza, The Goonies beach. I am so lucky.
D found a starfish at the base of one of the rocks. It was hard to photograph since it was pitch black outside.
On Day 3 the weather was gross (normal for Portland, we were lucky to experience the abnormal weather the previous two days), so we went shopping. Brother had found this amazing store the day before:
I can't even begin to explain how happy My Little Ponies and Strawberry Shortcakes make me now. My recurrent nightmare as of late has been that I am rummaging through these old toys and wishing that I was a kid again. I'm not sure that I'll ever get over certain things, and I commend my subconscious for trying to protect me by transferring my angst onto the toys.
Post-shopping, we met DH for brunch at The Pancake House, which was crowded and lame, so he took us instead to a little vegan-friendly place downtown where I had an amazing tofu/garlic/herb scramble. We then went to some vintage clothing stores and ate more food, drove around the city for a bit, shopped, shopped some more (I bought the most amazing shirt for $20 and the most amazing dress for $43 - no tax! weee!), ate Lebanese food, and drove to the airport, where I instantly fell asleep in my chair.
Portland - a cute little city, but dreary. I don't think I could live there. I think the weather would get to me. The car-driving would get to me. The ocean and cheese factory job I would try, perhaps, would negate these things. Would I live there? If I had to. I wouldn't protest. The people were so very nice, hopeful, smiley. The coast, the forest, the food... all good. We had a great time.
I'm illiterate right now, if you couldn't tell. It's nearly 7:30 and I've been at work since 9:00 and NOTHING IS WORKING. Awesome.
So yeah. Portland. Awesome time had.
I need to get out of here.
Until tomorrow...
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