Cheese Factory Anyone?

Wow. Who knew I could be so friggin’ bored? We drove for an hour and a half to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory (my family in our car and our out of town friends in theirs….there just isn’t room to spare when you have two car seats, two strollers, diaper bag, extra clothes, etc to take along other bodies). Here I was thinking this would be this incredible adventure to see something I have never seen before but sadly, the most incredible thing was the drive itself (which was breath-taking-ly beautiful…the Pacific Coast in all its glory). We arrived at the factory and were getting strollers, gear and kids out of the car when I realized that the princess had blown through yet another outfit. Uh oh…..I had neglected to repack the diaper bag after her last blow out and I knew that the only article of clothing in the bag was a cute little pink sun suit. Not all that ideal since it was still chilly but what’s a mom to do? I cleaned her up, changed her clothes, wrapped her in a pink fuzzy blanket, placed her in her stroller and away we went.

I’d like to know who came up with the “self-guided” tour concept for this place. They ought to be taken out and shot. The place was so loud and packed that I couldn’t hear the film clips that were playing in each window so basically, I saw a bunch of machinery that no one was working. Maybe it was lunchtime but boy howdy was it as dull as dull could be. Even the prince said “Let’s go – ‘dis boring!” I really had to agree with him.

We did, however, get to purchase an ice cream cone made from the finest of Tillamook ice cream but as D so delicately put it “We could have bought this at Safeway and saved ourselves the trouble of the drive. She couldn’t have been more right.

On the way back I called Brenda – I knew she had visited the factory a few weeks earlier and I wanted to get her observations. When I asked if they had gone to the factory (had to confirm my facts, you know) she sounded almost excited with her “Yes! We did!” answer (which got me thinking that maybe we are just hard to please/entertain people) but when I said “What did you think?” she came back to “Well….it was interesting and we did get some really good ice cream!” Ah ha! The ice cream part was the best part for them as well. Suddenly I felt vindicated. She hadn’t enjoyed it either. Thank God…it wasn’t just us after all.

The drive back brought much the same as the drive there but we did stop off at a Scenic Viewpoint to take in the view (amazing!!). Our out of town friends loved seeing the coastline so…..the morning wasn’t a total waste after all.
Once we arrived back in town it was time for a quick trip through McDonald’s drive thru, lunch in our room and then swimming time for the prince and D. The princess and I stayed in the room so she could have her lunch and then we went over to the pool to watch (and take pictures, of course) for a while. The princess and I headed back to the room to rest and the prince and D followed not far behind.

We all climbed on top the beds so that we could get a quick rest in before dinner but wouldn’t you know it – we all fell asleep. Luckily D woke up 10 minutes before we were supposed to meet Lynn and Diana for dinner. We plopped sleeping children into the strollers and off we went. Dinner was good and I even managed to get the prince to behave for most of it. No easy feat but bribing him with going on the hand pedal train cars was enough to do the trick.

After dinner we headed back up the street, stopped to make good on my promise and then over to the little mall for some “looking around” and a few trips on the carousal. Then, finally, time to head back to the room……with on small stop along the way.

The prince insisted that I hit the beach with him (I had yet to step foot in the sand…I’m not a fan of sand). I cannot deny my children happiness so off I went (muttering to myself). We ended up in the surf chasing (or was it being chased by?) the waves. We had a blast and I loved having the prince all to myself for a while.

We stopped at the swing set on the beach (I know – weird, right?) before heading back to the promenade and when D saw us swinging, Lynn and Diana suggested she go get some photos and that they would watch the princess. Uh…..ok. Believe me when I say my daughter has a set of lungs on her like nobody’s business (what does that mean anyway?). We were far enough away that we couldn’t have heard anyone yell for us but we sure could hear the princess screaming and crying. It was awful…she is such a mama’s girl and she just can’t stand being out of our sight (or having us out of hers). When we heard her screaming D raced back to get her. She was fine as soon as she was in D’s arms. Poor little angel – she is going to have to learn that she is ok away from us for a few minutes. As it is now, I’m not sure how I will manage to get any breaks once D is in school.

So that was today – busy, crazy and fun. Tomorrow Lynn and Diana leave us and we continue on for a few more days alone. It’s still hard to believe they came all the way from Illinois to join us for a few days on the coast. Thanks guys – it was great!!