Wednesday, July 2nd

On Wednesday, July 2nd, we tearfully bid adieu to our campsite (well, maybe not tearfully). Amanda’s parent drove home with the kids while Amanda, Danielle and I worked our way up the Oregon/Washington coast. Have I mentioned that the scenery is majestic?


On our way up the coast, we drove through Tillamook – home of the Tillamook Cheeseheads, I mean Cheesemakers.


We visited the Tillamook Cheese factory and bought some cheese curds and ate some YUMMY ice cream. How come I can get Tillamook cheese in Utah but not Tillamook ice cream? The injustice of it all!


We also stopped in Astoria, OR (of The Goonies and Kindergarten Cop fame). For some reason, almost every building we drove by looked like the school in Kindergarten Cop (at least according to Amanda). Totally gorgeous (Astoria, not the school buildings). Then we crossed the bridge into Washington.




Even though we were in the car for a LONG time, we found ways to entertain ourselves – we’re hilarious. We especially had fun singing old 80’s music. Earlier in the trip we were talking about music and Danielle mentioned that she didn’t know or listen to any 80’s music. Oddly enough, though, as we listened to the 80’s station on Amanda’s satellite radio, Danielle was singing several songs, almost word for word. Hmmm… I don’t know any 80’s songs? Whatever.


As we drove through some small Washington towns, one question BEGGED to be asked: Where do they get the names for these towns? Cosmopolis (sounds like it should be a big ‘metropolis’ but, um, no) and Humptulips are just two examples.












We spent the night at Kalaloch Lodge near Forks, WA (more on Forks later). Two great stories came from this stay – well, I think they’re great, anyway, and since this is my blog, that’s all that matters.

Story 1: We were really hungry by the time we reached Kalaloch (pronounced Clay-lock), and were quite pleased to discover that the Lodge had a restaurant. When I checked in, I was told that they were full and that we should make reservations for dinner. No reservations were available until much later, and as I mentioned, we were hungry. So, I took a menu back to our room so we could order take out. The first thing I noticed about the room was that there wasn’t a TV (good thing Jeff didn’t come with us – he would have HATED not having a TV). That wasn’t TOO serious, we had books to read AND we were tired after spending 3-days in a tent. However, as we looked around for a phone to call in our take out order, we couldn’t find one. We couldn’t even find a phone jack. But then I found a card that said:

“Help!
There seems to be a problem.
Drop this card at the front desk…blah, blah.
If this is urgent, please call ‘0’ and we will resolve your problem immediately.”
Call ‘0’ with what? Oh well, no worries, I’ll just call the lodge with my cell phone. But wait, we have no cell reception. Huh. So, I drive up to the lodge to put in our take-out order, but decided to stop by the front desk and ask about the phone situation.

Receptionist: “None of our units have phones.”
Me: “OK, why does this card tell me to dial “0” in an emergency?”
Receptionist: “We get those cards from a warehouse.”
Whatever that means. Luckily we didn’t run into an emergency.

Story 2: As I was waiting in line to order take out I overheard the following conversation between the guy in front of me and a restaurant employee.

Guy (looking to order the pasta dish): “What’s Pomodoro sauce?”
Employee: “Pomodoro’s just a fancy French word for Marinara sauce.”
Fancy French word? Pomodoro? For all the pasta dishes the French are so famous for? I was totally laughing. Although, according to wikianswers.com, most Italians do consider the two sauces the same.

Stay tuned...