The weather report said that today would be partly cloudy, which we took to mean party sunny, so we took a chance and drove up the coast to the Tillamook Cheese Factory, 50 miles to the north of us.  We drove up Hwy 101 to get there early and avoid the crowds we heard about, and drove back along the coast to see the sights.

The cheese factory was interesting, although there wasn’t a guided tour and the self-guided tour was quite short.  The highlight was the samples of different cheese that were free and the ice cream which wasn’t free but was really good!

Our drive down the coast didn’t work out too well due to the fog.  Also, the road through one area that we wanted to see was closed and we had to take a detour that wasn’t right on the coast.  It was way too foggy to see much of anything!  Here are a few pictures:

Yesterday it was a little less foggy than it’s been all week, so we took a drive south along the coast to see what we could see.  The coast along here in Oregon is rocky cliffs, but in several places there are beaches at the foot of the cliffs.

We saw rocks literally covered in cormorants, but no whales or seals or otters.  Otters used to be plentiful around here but no one sees them anymore.

We saw one area at low time where a lot of people were clamming, which was interesting to watch.

We stopped at the Yaquina Head lighthouse.  It’s not a working lighthouse, although I was surprised at that because of the heavy fog in this area.  You can’t go into the lighthouse except on a tour, but we were able to walk around it and look down at the water from the cliffs.  Thank goodness there were good fences along the edge, because it was a sheer drop-off!  As we walked back to our car from the lighthouse, the fog which had been a short distance out into the ocean moved in, by the time we pulled out of the parking lot you couldn’t even see the lighthouse anymore!

With the fog getting so heavy, we headed back home.  Hopefully in a day or two the fog will clear more and we’ll be able to see more of the coastline.  Here are some pictures: