Another Oregon Weekend

Last weekend we were in Portland for the garden show and learned that this weekend there would be a model train show... Dave also knows someone in Oregon who is building a motor home on a semi truck frame in the area so once again we headed to Oregon for a weekend trip.  It was amazing... every time we visit Oregon I love it more.  This last weekend we first headed to Dave's friends  house.. which is near McMinniville Oregon.. and while we were driving through there we saw this

which turns out to be a water park at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.  Talk about amazing... you go up inside the plane and then ( click on the link to see pictures) there are tubes coming out of it into the building that you slide down... so cool!  

That is only part of it though.. the Spruce Goose lives there...  I am so excited .. this thing is huge.. you hear about how big it is.. but until you are standing there under it.. you have no clue.  So amazing in so many ways.

This place is filled with a lot of planes and some tanks and at least two buildings full of stuff... and the outside has stuff all over too... you can walk up to and touch.... they also have Imax movies.. and just a lot of things to do.. this is the kind of place that you need a whole day to explore.. we had 30 minutes :(  Good news is.. we will be going back with a whole day just to spend here.

So off to friends house and we got to visit there and see the motor home he is building.. look forward to watching it progress over the next year and I am sure there will be more posts about it :)  Then we decided to heard to Tillamook to spend the night... wanted a place near the water and closer to Portland for our trip on Sunday.  Found a nice hotel for real cheap... it even had a telephone in the bathroom.  Gross!!!  lol but other than that it was very nice.. the breakfast in the morning was basically nothing so we headed into town to find a small town place.. found a pancake house that was great.. service was top notch and I had biscuits and gravy with sausage just like grandma used to make.. no store bought mix here :)  We then drove around town a bit.. did not have very much time which was bad because we now have found another place where we want to spend a good long week.  So many things to do in this little town.... we drove past the cheese factory.. have to go check that out.. I am going back there for the tour and some cheese.  Then we headed out to the beach.. wanted to see the light house..

So beautiful... we were so lucky.. the skies cleared up and we were able to spend some time just taking some pictures and enjoying the day. We played on the beach a little bit but then spent more time up here on the cliff with the light house.. the views were just amazing. 

                                       

Checked out another Air Museum.. this one in Tillamook.. Noticed it in the dark when we drove into town.. a HUGE building... when we drove out in the day light we were able to see just how huge.. look at this plane parked in front of the building... HUGE!!

You can check here for some history on the place and stats on its size and some pictures.. this building was built to house blimps.. in 1942.. to keep our coasts safe... amazing!   Again we did not get to go in.. just did not have time.. we really need at least a week in this area.. between the beaches and the cliffs and the shop and the cheese and the blimp hangers...SO SO much to do!

We did make it to the model railroad show in Portland.. which was the big reason for heading that way.. and it was not as big of a show as we had thought it would be.. but it was still a nice show. Lots of things to see... and a lot of kids there.. it is nice to see so many generations getting involved.  My favorite part of the show was Dave taking all the pictures... he took a lot of fun shots and in so many of them you can not even tell it is model railroad stuff and not a real train.  I only took a couple of pictures.. I am not really good at this type of thing.. all of my pictures you could tell it was model rail roads.. lots of people in my shots... my favorite picture that I took was this one of Dave taking a picture :) 

That was our second trip to Oregon in as many weeks... and I am not sure how we will fit some more in there but I know I need to spend more time there .. there is just never enough time... every minute seems to lead me wanting 5 more.  I am guessing that is good and bad... good in that I will never run out of things and places I want to go and see... and bad in that I will never be able to get them all seen and done. I am not sure how anyone is ever bored.. there are so many things to do and places to see. 

I am thinking we are home for the next few weekends... we have the shop so close to being done.. and a list of orders to start working on.  We have a bigger vacation/road trip we are planning for this summer.. and a couple smaller ones.  My sisters wedding is coming up in a month so I will be making a lot of cake pops and treats... and getting ready to be puppy sitting :)  This next month should be wonderfully busy just with stuff around here :)