Coyote Rock--The Adventure Continues: July 19 & 20

Happy Second Birthday, Lottie!

Saturday we drove to McMinnville where the Evergreen Air & Space Museum is located. We wanted to view Howard Hughes's Spruce Goose. There are very few roads leading inland in Oregon. We took highway 18 from Lincoln City all the way to the museum. We passed many vineyards and fruit stands along the way. Because there is only one road to the coast in this area, it was packed!

The Evergreen Museum has 3 main buildings: one housing the Spruce Goose, one housing an IMAX theater and the last houses a space museum. Our mission was to see the Spruce Goose.

We stopped outside the building to look at a few other planes before entering to complete our mission. (There was also a Jaguar show going on behind the building.)

We thought the admission was a bit pricey since we are used to visiting military air museums.
We paid $13 each to tour the building with the Spruce Goose. It would have been another $11 each to tour the space museum and more for the IMAX. There were a few items we hadn't seen before, but we had seen most of the planes in other museums. Joyce found the firejumper exhibit the most interesting. It detailed firejumpers from their inception until today.

The Spruce Goose is in the center of the building with all the other exhibits around it. Here is the nose of the Goose (The goose is made mostly of Himalayan Birch bark, not spruce).

We were able to enter the Spruce Goose. Everything is behind plexiglas, but here is a picture to the rear of the plane. It is a big plane!Before we left the building, Bob went up to the balcony to get a picture of the whole plane.
As we drove back to Lincoln City we stopped at one of the farm stands. Joyce bought fresh vegetables and raspberries. Raspberries and blueberries are in season and many of the local farms grow them. We already have a 2 pound container of blueberries (Jennifer, you would love them!)

No trip is complete without a stop at the local casino. We stopped in Lincoln City to look around Chinook Winds Casino. We played a slot machine for a bit and then left. The smoke was pretty heavy and the casino was crowded.

Sunday would be our last day at Coyote Rock RV Park. Our plan was to kayak the Siletz River. We put the kayaks in at the boat ramp near our site. We paddled up the river to the next rv park which is several miles away. Right after we put in we saw a harbor seal playing near the shore. Bob couldn't get the camera out fast enough to get a picture. We tried to stay in the area to get the picture, but the current was pushing us gently upstream.
Here Joyce is paddling between the dock and our rv (the one with the blue tank on the rear window). The boat ramp is just ahead.As we neared the boat ramp, another couple was getting ready to put in. They told us many places to kayak near Tillamook. They also told us not to miss Tillamook Creamery (everyone has told us that!) They said it has the freshest ice cream and best tasting cheese in Oregon.

Monday morning we will travel to Tillamook, Oregon. The plan is to stay there for a few days and then move north to Ft. Stevens near Astoria. We should be in Washington state before the end of the month--or not.