Astoria - Hey...You....Guys...

From Portland we headed back to the coast. Along the way we stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and went on a free tour and got us some cheese. The process of cheese making was really interesting to see. I wish we could have lingered, but we other places to see. We did get dinner there, mac -n-cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc... There was a cheese cookbook that I wanted to buy, but I knew it wasn't necessary, so I didn't get it. It ended up being a gift to me. I was very happy, I do like my cheese.

 

Yummy, cheese, There was a sampling section at the end of the tour. I liked the sharp and medium cheddar cheese the most, but I ended up buying some garlic white cheese and some goat cheese with wheat thins as a snack.

Then we continued on to Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach is famous for its rock formation call Haystack Rock. Haystack Rock has been used in multiple films, including Goonies and Kindergarten Cop. "Haystack Rock can be seen in the opening scene of The Goonies, when the Fratellis are fleeing from the police and then enter a race on the beach. It can be seen in the background. Later in the film you can see the Haystack Rock again when Mikey is pointing out some rocks in the distance." Talk about bringing back some memories.

Haystack Rock

 

 

Spent the night in Astoria in a great hotel called the Cannery Pier Hotel. This hotel was right along the water, practically under the Astoria Bridge, which is a great looking bridge, that takes you into Washington. This was the location of a major canning operation. There is a picture in the hotel of a warehouse holding 1.5 million cans of salmon waiting to be shipped out. Now the docks are all in ruins, but it was still really cool looking.

 

Docks in ruin

 

The next morning before heading over to Washington, we stopped off at the Astoria Column, which shows that history of Astoria and Oregon. This included talking about Lewis and Clark making it to the Pacific Ocean with the Corps of Discovery. I was really glad we stopped here because it is so significant in Oregon History. While there, we climbed up 164 steps to the top and had a glider plane competition, the gift shop sells the recyclable planes, and I won. My plane soared over to the nearby woods and we saw it keep catching lifts of air to keep is soaring for a couple of minutes.

Astoria Column

 

 

I love to learn and seeing information in Astoria about shipping, canning salmon, and William and Clark were all great things to see, but my true highlight was ..... Going to the Goonies House. This house is privately owned, but they know that Goonies is practically a cult film, so they have signs at the house, letting you come up and see the house, but to respect the privacy of the owners and the neighbors nearby.  After the Goonies house, we drove by the school that was used in Kindergarten Cop. Too Cool!!!!

 

 



 

Now I need to re-watch the movie, seeing what I can recognize.