Day Fourteen Sep 12, 2000 Tuesday Newport to Aberdeen We woke up in Newport, Oregon and pointed the car north. The coastline was beautiful, and we adopted a slow and pleasant pace, following the main route through the small coastal towns and exiting from time to time to drive very near the shoreline. We stopped at Pacific City and Cape Kiwanda park, when we saw the unusual rock structure located just off shore. We split up with Dave getting some coffee and Lyn and Jesse heading to the beach. In that short time, an unusual fog bank rolled in, creating these interesting pictures. Within 20 more minutes, the entire rock formation was invisible in the fog.     This sign board caught our eye, got a chuckle, and certainly merited a picture. It is rare to find such a well delineated list of behavior expectations posted for the public to follow. Our next stop was in the town of Tillamook, Oregon for a small lunch, a stop at a tourist center, and to take the tour of the Tillamook Cheese factory. The process for making cheese in Oregon greatly resembles the process on display at the cheese factory tours we took in Wisconsin, but it was the first to see the automated packing line. The cheese was being packed in pre-weighed packages (for grocery store sales), so an automatic weighing machine kicked out off standard blocks and operators manually shaved slices off of too large ones then put the extra slices onto the too small ones. A very odd process. A lot of cheese went out the door at Tillamook. They had a nice information center and the walls were covered with stories and pictures about the early founders of the Tillamook cheese cooperative. A nice presentation about environmental activities seemed sincere and not like the typical corporate 'greenwashing' We headed north toward the Columbia river and the Washington state line. We stopped briefly in Seaside, Oregon for a snack and this picture of the oceanfront motels. It was a nice little beach resort town, but unfortunately for us was mid-way between our start and finishing points today. We crossed the magnificent span across the mouth of the Columbia river from Astoria, Oregon to Chinook, Washington. Of course, we tooled around both sides a little and were surprised to run into another one of the carved Indian sculptures that Peter "Wolf" Toth has placed around the USA, referred to as the "Trail of the Whispering Giants".  We snapped this picture, then headed over the bridge. We toyed with stopping for the night but decided to make a reservation for tonite at the Red Lion Inn in Aberdeen, Washington. That gave us the ability to enjoy the towns of Astoria, Oregon and Ilwaco and Long Beach, Washington without worrying about driving the last distance after dark. After crossing to the Washington side, we tooled about the small town of Iwasca. It was easy to follow the signs up to the historic lighthouse at Cape Disappointment, perched upon the bluff overlooking the vast area where the Columbia river meets the sparkling blue Pacific ocean. Although the sky was overcast, the views were still spectacular. We walked about the grounds, up behind the Lewis and Clark interpretive center (that had been closed for a couple of hours),incongruously built atop a WW II-era artillery emplacement. We countered these tame deer. We snapped these pictures then managed to startle them into scampering back into the woods. Here was a sign we had never seen before. In Florida, you are always directed to the "Hurricane Evacuation Route". With the sun setting, and our hotel taken care of, we could leisurely follow the peninsula out to the small seaside town of Long Beach, Washington. We drove by the Kite Hall of Fame and stopped and had dinner at the "Loose Kaboose" and enjoyed meeting the friendly owner operators. It was had to say if it was a slow day or the slow season or just late in the evening, but the restaurant deserved to be much busier. We enjoyed ourselves and the little town, then as dusk arrived, drove back out to the highway and onto Aberdeen, Washington. We arrived at the Red Lion near midnight, checked in quickly, and were in bed in short order. Original Web Upload May 2001 Last Update: July 15, 2001