Oregon Living 2019 – Blog #66 – Cheese!, Ferries, and Headed to the Airport

 

Monday, July 15^th, 2019……  The plan this morning was to leave about 8:30am, and meet my sister and Jody at Elmer’s in Albany, for breakfast. They were headed off north to Salem and we went west to Newport, then up the coast to Tillamook Creamery.  Even though we had been there and done that, it was fun to show the girls. They liked the tour and learned all about the process, all they way from the pampered cows to the finished cheese.

Of course, we went through the tasting line!

And then the store, where they got some souvenirs. I decided to take them back a different way so they could have another adventure!

This was the Buena Vista Ferry, which we caught and rode across the river. The ride is short and you don’t get out of the car, but I think it was fun for them to see and experience!

Shelby had said she was craving French fires, so we stopped at Jack in the Box on the way home. They don’t have these in FL but they have been to them before so they knew what to order. We go everything to go and came home and ate and were definitely done for the day! Oops, I still had Rylee to take care of!  It was still warm out so she got her cooling run. But I still had to dry her off a bit before letting her in the house!

Later, the girls stayed in Shelby’s room and played video games but us old grand folk called it a night and headed off to bed!   

   

Tuesday, July 16^th, 2019…...  Another rest day - for the most part. We wanted to take the girls to A&W for root beer floats but we had to check first because Shelby had said she wanted to cook chicken tacos for us before they left and tonight was the last chance. My sister and Jody came by to drop off Quincy and to say goodbye since we would be heading out tomorrow morning. 

After they left, Shelby said she wasn’t feeling well so we decided that we would just go to A&W for dinner (and root beer floats!).  We had a nice meal and headed back home and called it a night.

Wednesday, July 17^th, 2019…...  Travel day for all of us. We had the drive to Portland to make, plus the girls had over 7 hours of flights tonight to get back home. We had decided to leave with enough time to stop at Cheesecake Factory (at their request!) for dinner. No problem – there are two in the city’s outskirts. I choose the Tigard location which was in a nice sized mall. Shelby had seen that they had a Tesla dealer there so that was a plus for her!  The flight out was tonight at 10:27pm. We left the house about 2:00pm and drove up.

We had a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and the girls got filled up with appetizers and then the cheesecake. 

But they each saved some of it for the plane trip! We then walked around the mall. I’ve never seen this before but they had a shop inside the mall with three Teslas to check out. Shelby said she had actually driven one recently and liked it very much. Duuuhhh!  I got a few pics of her enjoying her fantasy car!

Meanwhile, Lydia and Kate headed on to other shops and we eventually caught up. The girls hit several stores and Kate got a book from the Amazon store. We headed out toward the next journey. I wanted to show them the view of the city from one of the hills. I chose to take them to the Pittock Mansion, perched on a hill with the best view I knew. The mansion was closed for the day but you could still walk the grounds. In the backyard, we saw this….

We headed back to the car and Shelby got a text that their flight was late and catching the second flight would be at risk, so we immediately headed for the airport to check on our options. I dropped them off and said goodbye, while Lydia went in to help them check their bags and get their flights squared away. I went to the cell phone waiting lot and waited. It didn’t take too long before I got the call – come get us! Turns out that the flight wouldn’t make it to Charlotte for the connection and there were no more flights out from there to Ft Myers for over 8 hours. We knew we couldn’t do that, so Lydia and the attendant got them flights out the next morning. l picked them up and we headed back home and turned in for the night.