Oregon -All Work and Play

I developed a Data Mining System nearly 2 years ago for my group at work. It has saved hundreds of man hours in technician and engineering effort in compiling data. Arizona is not a development site for special projects and yet I was given the go-ahead to use what resources I needed to put together a proof of concept. I had a working system in a few months and now my system has been upgraded to 2.0 after bringing in a software engineer to enhance the application beyond what I can code. I wrote an install document and was asked to install my system in the development site in Hillsbouro Oregon. I flew up to Oregon on Sunday and planned to get in some sightseeing before work on Monday morning. I headed up to the Columbia River Gorge on the Historic Highway. I was amazed at how many waterfalls there are!

Here is a view looking east up the Columbia River Gorge from Crown Point. By the way, Crown Point is the most windy spot I have ever been! I could barely hold the camera still enough to get a respectable image.
This is Bridal Vail Falls

I took this video with my phone of Bridal Vail Falls to show the amount of water flowing

This is Horsetail Falls

I really liked Latourell Falls due to the cliff face detail.
This is likely the more widely known of the Gorge falls; Multnomah Falls- Incredible!
Here is Shepperd's Dell Falls

This is the Upper section of Wahkeena Falls, it is comprised of several cascades and here is one of my favorite sections.
There was this amazing tunnel lined with Cedar that smelled great as well as looked awesome.

There is moss on everything! I could not find dirt as something green was growing everywhere!

At the end of the Columbia River Gorge Historic Highway was this bridge

I then headed out to the coast with two things in mind. The town of Tillamook and the ocean!

Highway 101 took me north along the coast and this was one of the points

Nice sandy trails lead to the beach every few hundred yards

Here a small stream meets the sea

This is a low view of the beach. Not seen here but there are shells everywhere!

There is a rock feature off shore that had an arch

Looking back to the small fishing town along the coast, quaint!

So the important thing (to me) about the town of Tillamook is the cheese factory! I really enjoy a slice of Monterrey Jack on a cracker and even add some summer sausage to get it right. Tillamook cheese has usually been my first choice so it was natural that I would want to check out the factory. I got to sample many different cheeses and the most unique was the squeaky cheese. It squeaked when you bite into it! I really liked the Bacon Cheddar too, unfortunately i have not been able to find it on my local store shelves.

So to finish off my trip to the coast, I had a Tillamook Cheese Bacon Burger at the cheese factory cafe. Incredible.

I took hundreds of photos and many more than these are great shots but I will not publish them all as this blog would go on a long way. I really enjoyed visiting Oregon and hope one day to take Tara and the boys up to see the places I visited. Maybe in the spring so it won't be raining the entire time. I spen more time drying off my camera gear than enjoying the area!~