Oregon and Washington

From Eureka in northern California, we continued up Highway 101 into Oregon. The coastline is rugged and absolutely stunning:

The following day we drove up the coast to Seaside, and the end of the Lewis and Clark Trail. The monument commemorates the 18 month, 4,000 mile journey from Saint Louis to the Oregon Coast 

and more of the stunning coastline on the drive back:

We stayed at a little RV park and Netarts on the coast outside Tillamook, and the bay and sunset from Cape Meares at Oceanside was breathtaking:

The next morning we took a drive south along the coast road and were rewarded again with crashing waves and more stunning scenery:

On our way back into Tillamook, we called in at the Air Museum which is housed in an old military blimp hangar and the largest clear-span wooden structure in the world. The museum has a Boeing B-377 which was delivered to Pan-Am in 1949 then converted to a 'mini-guppy' for carrying contract cargo in 1967. In 1972 it carried the Pioneer 10 Spacecraft launched by NASA, and in 1981, transported the 'Goodyear Europa' which was used as an aerial TV platform for Charles and Diana's wedding.

In the afternoon, we visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory which has been a farmers-owned co-op for over 100 years. Not only do they produce many varieties of delicious  cheddar cheese, their butter, ice-cream and other dairy products are yummy too. Here come the big blocks of cheese:

and cut into smaller blocks:

and sent off for packaging:

Time to head away from the coast and across to Portland. Sunday was Mark's BIG birthday, and as it was absolutely chucking it down (well, he did say he was getting fed up with blue skies and hot weather - be careful what you wish for), we spent the afternoon in Deschutes Brewery, where it was warm but not dry: 

Over the next few days the weather was much better so we did the usual tourist stuff and walked around Portland. We also discovered the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum about 50 miles south of the city, and what a discovery! It is the home of several historic aircraft, including the Hughes H-4 Hercules the 'Spruce Goose' - the largest flying boat ever built

They had an SR-71, the Blackbird, (Mark's favourite plane) which we got to see from a different perspective: 

There's also the 'Wings and Waves Waterpark' next door which has a different kind of waterslide :-) 

Time to hit the road again, this time to Everett, north of Seattle in Washington. Today we visited the Boeing factory which is the largest building in the world by volume and covers over 98 acres. The building is so large that ceiling fans had to be installed as it was creating its own weather system and raining inside! The factory assembles the Boeing 747, 767, 777 and 787. I couldn't take photos on the tour but here are a couple I downloaded from their site:

Tomorrow we head further north and start packing up and getting Badger ready to go into storage for the winter.