Tillamook OR Area Sights

In 1942, the U.S. Navy began construction of 17 wooden hangars to house K-class airships that would be used for  anti-submarine patrol and convoy escort. Two of these hangars were built at Naval Air Station Tilllamook, which was commissioned in December 1942 to serve the Oregon-Washington-California coastal areas.

With WW II well under way, construction of the two hangars was rushed to completion. Hangar "B" was the first one built and was completed in August of 1943. Hangar  "A" which was destroyed in a 1992 fire, was completed in only 27 working days! Amazingly, there were no serious injuries or deaths on the whole project.

Stationed at NAS  Tillamook was Squadron ZP-33 with a complement of eight K-Class airships. The K-ships were 252 feet long, 80 feet in diameter, and filled with 425,000 cu. ft. of Helium. With a range of 2,000 miles and an ability  to stay aloft for three days, they were well suited for coastal patrol and convoy escort. With the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 and the Japanese submarine threat eliminated, Naval Air Station Tillamook was reduced to functional status. In 1948, Naval Air Station Tillamook was decommissioned for good, ending a long and proud tradition.

There are numerous airplanes in the museum and this one was parked outside of  the huge door.  It is called an air crane it was possible to go exam the plane.  We didn't take the tour this time but in 1995 we toured the hangar and thought is was really neat.

 
  Garibaldi is just north of Tillamook and we wanted to check it out.  They have a really nice port there with a Coast Guard Station, sawmill, marina and a few restaurants.  There are also two RV parks in the port area.  One was full while the other had a lot of vacant sites.

 This old boat was on display in the port and for the life of me I can't think of the name of this type of boat.  Anybody out there know what the proper name for this boat is?

Part of the fishing fleet in the marina.  The main fleet sails out of Astoria, OR according to what a worker at the docks said.

 Sea oats along the harbor at Garibaldi, OR provide a nice photo setting.

 We ran across this roadside sign at the harbor and found it most interesting.  The Cape Verde Islands are off the coast of Africa and this sloop traveled there and then wound up going around the world.  They sure did take the long way around to finish their goal.

 The largest industry in the area centers around dairys and the Tillamook Co-op is the largest and most successful one of them.  It is an employee owned Co-op and has been in existence for over 100 years.  They produced cheese for many years before adding ice cream to their product mix. 

 There is a self guided tour of the cheese making process and also a cheese tasting section.  We stopped by the tasting room and then Gerry wandered into the ice cream and fudge shops.  Oh Oh!

 Gerry, standing in line for some of the best tasting ice cream we've ever had.  I had the 5 scoop sampler and Gerry went with a double dip waffle cone.  Trust me, the ice cream was great.

 My ice cream came in this container and it was full to the brim.  I'm glad we don't live in this are or we would be spending all our time and money eating the ice cream.  I hope we have time to stop on our way out when we head north.  They have a large parking area for RVs and I'm sure Gerry won't let me bypass it.

 When they first started they produced more cheese than could be consumed in the area so they built the Morning Star so they could expand their sales base.  The ship is included on their logo as shown above with the ice cream cup.

 We toured around the area and wound up in Bay City, OR around dinner time.   The Fish Peddler restaurant was our choice for dinner and it turned out to be an excellent choice.  There were a limited number of tables and a waiting line so we opted to sit at the counter.  It was interesting watching them prepare all the different meals and we got hungrier by the minute looking at all the delicious meals lined up.

Gerry had prawns and chips and I had a steelhead salmon burger and a nice salad which was very good.  Gerry fell in love with her wine glass and tried to buy one to take with us, but they didn't have enough left to sell.  The restaurant had two fish facing each other on the entrance window and the wine glass also had the two fish on it.

Notice the two fish above the waiters head.

They had a very nice selection of fresh seafood in the case next to us and I had my eye on the salmon but balked at paying the high price for it.  They did have Old Bay seasoning for sale there which surprised us since it is a Maryland Chesapeake Bay product.  They do have good taste out here in Oregon.

We went back to the motorhome and watched some pre-recorded tv shows we have and wound up watching 3 episodes.  By this time we were worn out and called it a night.


That was our day, how was yours?