Our stay at Pacific City Oregon was such a wonderful time for us. Of course we had to go to Tillamook to visit the cheese factory. It’s a great tour and I did learn a lot about cheese. It was pretty cool to watch as the cheese is made, formed, cut and packaged. One QA section is where the cheese is weighted and if it was not within tolerances the worker took it off the line and either cut or added to the block and then placed it back on the line. Another section is where the cheese gets packaged, a machine places the block into a wrapper and then vacuum seals it, next it pastes to another QA section where a worker checks that it was sealed and the packaging is correctly aligned, if not its taken off the line where it will be taken out of the packaging and placed back on the line. Now the line is going pretty fast so you have to be quick, not something I could do. Remember Lucy and Ethel on the candy line?
One of the attractions that make Pacific City an interesting place is the dory boats. A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat, about 16 to 23 feet long. It is usually a lightweight boat with high sides, a flat bottom and sharp bows. But the thing to do is watch these dory’s as they come up onto the beach at full speed! They hit the beach and slide 40 – 50 feet onto the beach. It’s something to behold. Watch my video as the dory’s hit the beach.
Watch our YouTube video on the Dory boats here!
The last place we visited was the air museum at United States Naval Air Station Tillamook (1942-1948). It’s home to the largest free-standing, clear-span wooden structure in the world. Covering more than seven acres, the building is 1,072 feet long, 296 feet wide, and towers more than 15 stories high. NAS Tillamook stationed blimps during 1943-1945. The blimps were used to watch over ports in Oregon and Washington and shipping lanes from California to the San Juan Islands, a 500-mile radius. These Lighter-than-Air (LTA) ships could stay aloft 48 hours, cruise at 50-67 knots, and cover 13,000 square miles of water during a day’s shift. This hanger is huge! They not only have the museum inside with 40-50 planes, but one end is used for boat, trailer and motorhome storage. The pictures are of a MiG-15 is a jet fighter aircraft developed for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds. The other is one of two mini guppy’s that were built. Erickson Air Crane used the Mini Guppy to haul heavy equipment until 1995 and is the only surviving mini guppy.
Watch our YouTube video from the Air Museum!
Overall we had such a good time visiting Tillamook, watching the dory’s, the air museum, the beaches and some great restaurants. Our camp site one of the best, it was very private and the fire pit was really cool. We will return the next time we visit the area.