Today, we decided to adventure down the Pacific Coast Highway. We had to take a small detour due to a mudslide that happened on Friday.  The detour took us through a winding two lane road.  The weather was rainy off and on (surprise, surprise). Once back on the Pacific Coast Highway, the views of the Pacific Ocean were awesome.  The waves were huge!

Our first stop of the day was the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  

They had unlimited samples of their cheese!  Scott may have been in heaven.  They also had some very delicious ice cream!  I ordered a “flight” so I could try different flavors.  I had strawberry (not as good as Berry Patch), caramel butter pecan, and Marionberry pie (my favorite).

After a lunch of cheese and ice cream we head to Cape Meares to see a lighthouse.

This lighthouse is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon.

There were also some pretty awesome views from this area.

One side of this cape is extremely windy!  The trees even grow weird because of the wind.

There is a protected tree here called the octopus tree!  Supposedly, the cause for its growth is a mystery.  It was pretty cool.

 

After we finished as Cape Meares, we headed up the Pacific Coast Highway to Rockaway Beach.  We stopped there to walk out to see Twin Rocks.

On our way home, we stopped by Nehalem Bay winery.  It was in a building from 1907 that started as a creamery.  It was a very interesting experience.  Never have I been to a winery where the tasting included unlimited tastings of as many or as few wines as you choose.  Needless to say, I sampled almost all of them, and “revisited” my favorite several times.  We left with a bottle of my favorite.