Steam Train Adventure

Hello my friends.  I missed my Wednesday post as we were on an adventure with our 2 grandsons.  We headed to Tillamook on Tuesday and headed north Hwy 101 to Garibaldi where we had a room booked for the night.  The photo below was the steam engine that we'd be riding behind the next day

We had dinner before checking in.  Hayden gave a thumbs up on the clam chowder.

I had a bacon, mushroom Tillamook cheeseburger!  :-)

Mocha enjoyed spending time with the boys.

All checked in and Dayle and the boys headed to the pool while I relaxed and read  the 2nd in a 3 part series that Lorraine from MamasMercantile blog recommended.  They are The Blackhouse, The Harris Man and The Chess Men by Peter May.  They're good!  I need to download the third one as I finished the 2nd last night.

We got up the next morning and the boys filled up at the free breakfast buffet, then we packed up and loaded the car and drove the short distance to the train where we waited for it to arrive so we could board.  As you can see the weather wasn't the best and it was raining but we still had fun.  My blog friend Wendy from Australia should enjoy this post, she LOVES trains!

Here we are all set to go.

A whole group of ladies from a senior center were on the trip, they all loved seeing Mocha on Dayle's lap.  She was a perfect passenger on the trip. 

We met the nice conductor, he was ex-Army and ex-Engineer too and he and Dayle had a nice conversation.  

He sure did a great job on the trip.

I couldn't get any photos of the views through the windows as they were covered with raindrops, but I was able to get this image through a slightly open window.  :-)  That is Tillamook Bay.

This is the caboose, the train cars were all painted this pretty royal blue.

The train took us from Garibaldi to Rockaway Beach and back.  We saw some great scenery, rain or not.  There was a big pond filled with a thousand lily pads and the pink lilies were in full bloom.  I so wish I could have gotten a photo of them.

We also passed by these amazing rock formations, the biggest one had this tunnel through the bottom, it doesn't show in this photo that we went back to capture after we disembarked from the train.

Our next stop was the remodeled Tillamook Cheese Factory.  I grabbed these next two photos from the internet.  

Dayle took the boys in while I stayed with Mocha in the car and caught up on my Words-With-Friends game.  :-)  The place was PACKED with visitors and the lines for ice cream were so long that they bought some cheese curds and fudge and headed back to the car.  We'll have to take them again when it's not high season there.

The did go up to the viewing windows to see the cheese being made, cut and wrapped on long conveyor belts.  A pretty amazing place.

The factory store had cheeses of all sorts.

Of course the obligatory photo of the boys in the Tillamook VW bus!

We then headed north again and stopped for dinner at the Wayfarer restaurant just south of Cannon Beach.  I had their delicious halibut and chips.  Yum.

This is the view from the restaurant, the famous Haystack Rock.

We're back home and it's a very busy day today with activity.  So, I have to get to it.  Thanks for stopping by!!

((hugs)), Teresa :-)