Saturday - The long-awaited Garlic Festival finally arrived, so Joe drove Marilyn and me over, and Joy brought Jim and Dixie, and we all met up at the Festival in North Plains about 11:00. This Festival was better than the blackberry festival a couple weeks ago, more stuff, more food, very nice artsy stuff. And lots of people.
We entered through the food area, which was a mistake because Joe and I didn't leave that way, so we never got any food there, except samples. I think everyone else got something to eat there. We encountered different forms of garlic right away, this was actually named the "Elephant Garlic Festival" and Elephant Garlic was a big part of the Festival. Garlic used to be a big crop here but apparently they don't grow too much of it around North Plains anymore, we were told it's still grown further east toward the Cascade Mountains. I never knew there were so many different kinds of garlic!
There were lots of booths with artists and craftsmen and craftswomen selling their wares -- all kinds of things, from birdhouses, jewelry, rocks, plants, crocheted items, placemats, recycled metal things, to wooden things, pictures, etc. I took pictures of a few things, but there were many, many more, and some of them very nice.
These were really cute, with little gnomes and fairies, planted in hollowed-out logs.
Bonsai trees
Love these crooked birdhouses.
I figured Joe could make this, out of an old propane tank.
I almost bought these hot air balloon placemats.
And Collins really missed out. He didn't come with us because he doesn't like garlic. But he would have LOVED some of these wooden items.
I had mentioned to Joe that we should think about driving over to Tillamook from the Festival because it was a pretty direct route. He discussed it with Joy and she agreed that it was a good idea so he got me out of the festival (I'm not sure I was finished), and we went for a drive. Imagine that.
We past a swamp area that looked like it had posts out in it, we wondered if something was planted out there (rice? oysters?) Don't know.
It took a little over an hour to get to Tillamook. We found out that due to construction they were not allowing people to their factory viewing window, so we didn't get to see any of the process, which we knew before we started over there. But we did go through their temporary visitor center, saw their displays, sampled the cheese, looked over their cheese cases, had lunch, and had ice cream.
We've seen many "painted ponies" but this is our first "painted cow," I believe.
There were lines for the lunch counter, lines for the cheese tasting,
lines for purchases, and lines for ice cream, but we withstood them all
and had the full experience, I guess. We ended with ice cream, anyway.
Then we headed down a loop drive to the coast, but part of the loop was shut down (road closed), so we had to settle for a one-way trip to Cape Meares Lighthouse, through the towns of Oceanside and Netarts.
We could barely see some sea lions on the low rocks out here, but we could hear them. And lots of birds, including black oystercatchers.
Brown wooden structure mentioned below.
We walked down to two lookout points, then down to the lighthouse.
These kids were enjoying these beautiful trees.
This was the shortest lighthouse in the system because it was already elevated on the cliff, but it hasn't operated since the 1960s. The guide told us studies have shown that lighthouses need to be under 250 feet above the water, anything higher is over the horizon for sailors so is not helpful. This one was at 243 feet.
We went up another trail on the way back, and saw this wonderful tree, same kids.
And just before we got to the parking lot, just behind the brown wooden structure with the name on it (pictured above), was a deer, casually munching the grass.
We headed back to civilization. Dixie texted that they were having pork tenderloins and fresh green beans for dinner, but we decided to head back to the RV, it had been a long day and we had a late Tillamook lunch. We got back about 6:30, but Collins and Marilyn were still over at Joy's so we didn't see them again today.
Tomorrow we move over to the county campground close to Joy (Barton Park). We will be there through the 21st (eclipse day), leaving on the 22nd. I believe Collins and Marilyn will pull out on Sunday for their appointment with the Winnebago service center on the 21st. And we hope to get in some visiting with the Croxtons.
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