Tillamook Adventures Continued--July 24-26

Thursday we drove around the airfield to visit Tillamook Air Museum. The hangar is in the Guiness World Book of Records as on of the largest wood structures. Its dimensions are 192 feet tall, 300 feet wide and 1,072 feet long. There are 7 acres under the one roof. There were 2 hangars in Tillamook (both built to house blimps in WWII), but one burned in 1992. You can read more about the museum at this link: http://www.tillamookair.com/

This is a picture of the woodwork on the ceiling.

Here is a picture of the length of the hangar--it is massive!

Tillamook Air Museum houses more than 30 WWII aircraft--most in flying condition!

Here are a few of the planes we saw:

Also in the museum are pieces of the plane that crashed in 1943 on Cape Lookout. The survivor of that crash visits the area for anniversaries when he is able.

From the airport we drove to downtown Tillamook to check out the Pioneer Museum. It is housed in the old county government building. Upstairs was devoted to animals of the area. There were taxidermy examples of all the creatures found on the Oregon coast.

The main floor was devoted to pioneer history--the interior of a log cabin was set up in one room. Another room was devoted to all Tillamook County residents who have served our country. The Gold Star Mothers put together scrap books of all who served in WWII--including what they did after the war.

The basement was devoted to collections from the logging industry and machines used in Tillamook County. Bob enjoyed looking at he old vehicles.

I was fascinated by the old washing machines. I don't like laundry now--some of those machines would have been torture!

The kitchen utensils were also interesting--I tried to guess how each was used.

Friday we traveled north to the town of Garibaldi. They were celebrating their founding with Garibaldi Days.

We did some geocaches along the way, of course. One was located at the local oyster shucking plant in Bay City (also home of Tillamook Country Smoker). We didn't find the cache, but it was interesting watching the shuckers at work.

From there we went on to Garibaldi. It is located on Tillamook Bay. There were booths set up with local crafts which were interesting. The most interesting to watch was the chainsaw carver. He was working on a fishing bear.

The steam train is a big attraction in Garibaldi. We looked over the stationary one as the real one was readying to travel to Rockaway Beach.

We didn't ride the train as the passenger car was open and it was a cool, overcast day.
As we walked around Garibaldi we found the local Coast Guard Station. It is built on concrete pilings in the bay.We found 2 local restaurants that looked good for lunch--Trollers and Fisherman's Korner. We chose Fisherman's Korner. Bob had fish and chips while I had the clam strips. Both meals were the best we have had so far.

We drove to the north end of town for our last cache. We found it near the sign explaining how Robert Gray discovered Tillamook Bay, mistaking it for the Columbia River. As we stood at the overlook, a fishing boat entered the bay on its way home.We returned to our campground stopping at the Tillamook Country Smoker and Fred Meyer to pick up some things. We enjoyed our stop at the Smoker as they had pictures and letters all around the store from soldiers in Iraq enjoying the jerky and beef sticks the Smoker donated.

Saturday we rode back to Garibaldi to watch the parade and to look in the Maritime Museum. Garibaldi is named after Giuseppe Garibaldi--the Italian hero, but he never set foot in the town. The first postmaster was a fan of Garibaldi and it was up to him to name the town!

The parade started at 11 a.m. and with colors presented by the Coast Guard.There were clowns from Astoria...
old cars....
more old cars....
and an old fire engine.
One of the most interesting cars was a 1959 Ford Galaxie Skyliner--the car whose hard top retracted into the trunk at the touch of a button.

Many of the cars will also be at the Tillamook County Fair for Pig 'n' Fords. Check it out at the fair's site under events--I can't begin to explain it! http://www.tillamookfair.com/

We enjoyed our trip to Garibaldi and the Maritime Museum. It chronicled the history of Tillamook Bay and had many scale replicas of ships used in the area.

From Garibaldi we returned to Tillamook and stopped at the Cheese Factory to make some purchases. Then it was on to the rv. Time to pack up and be ready to travel on Sunday.