Another beautiful day in Oregon and certainly not a day to stay inside. I got in the car and drove to the beach. Didn’t want to just visit the cities and the casinos and outlet malls but decided to see the relatively untraveled coast between Tillamook and Lincoln City. Pictures are available.

Driving out highway 26 I saw that Banks was holding their annual Elephant Garlic Festival. I made a quick stop, enjoyed some music and purchased an elephant ear from a vendor. The vendors seemed to be mostly local people. While I was waiting for my ear to fry, another vendor came over and they swapped garlic recipes.

At the coast, I stopped at the Tillamook Creamery and purchased some squeaky curds. Those are the un-aged cheese curds and they do squeak when you bite into them. You don't find them in the stores because they don't keep well. A delicacy of a trip to the beach.

The beach time visited the town of Netarts, Cape Lookout and down to Neskowin. All nice towns and wonderful scenery.

On the way back inland, I ran across the Driftcreek covered bridge. It has quite a story. The bridge, in its original location, was condemned by the county and was scheduled to be torn down because of rot and a good bridge was needed. A local family took all of the bridge pieces and, with the help of many local volunteers and a local lumber mill, they rebuilt the bridge on their land. An act of love.

I also stopped at the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. Evergreen Helicopter is based there in McMinnville and the family has built a gigantic museum sitting among the fields of grape vines. Besides many interesting planes, the museum now sports Howard Hughes Spruce Goose. I don't have a good picture of that plane -- it's just too big. If you are a fan of airplanes, though, this is the place to go.