To the beach!

Hiya Gang,

Little Fox, Cocoa and Navy Beanie here fortifying ourselves before our beach hike. It's still a little chilly and windy so some hot cocoa to start off makes sense. 

Navy and I here (along w/ Haystack Rock) in the background.  Where's Cocoa you ask? Cocoa ditched us to look for remnants of the sand castle contest a few days ago. 

I'm glad that Navy Beanie is able to enjoy the beach and not trigger any lingering trauma from the Mouse Island Tsunami. 

So many cool rock formations. 

Anyone  know what these growths on the rocks are? 

The seabirds are out in full force.  Has anyone seen Cocoa? Should we be scared?  Sneakerwaves?

Little Fox sat me down and told me that he got a text from Cocoa.  Cocoa went to the cheese factory (being that there were no remnants of the sand castle contest just a few days ago). Phooey.

Off to find Cocoa.

About 50 miles south of Cannon Beach Little Fox drove me to the Tillmaook Cheese factory.  I guess a good place to find a mouse is at a free cheese tasting event.   Today's cheeses:

1) Fresh Curds, 2) Aged Cheddar, 3) Colby Jack.

Back before the pandemic they used to sample the more unique cheeses made at Tillamook, sigh.

The cheese process is running strong today.  Looks like they are making cheddar cheese.

Those are 40lbs blocks of cheese.

How does a mouse get a job here? 

You would think that cheese directly from the factory would be cheaper than the grocery store.  Nope, not here. However, it's hard to pas up the unique flavors (curds, chili garlic cheddar, smoked salmon). 

This is the line for the ice cream shop.  It's long, but it goes fast. Little Fox recommends Moose Tracks or Strawberry Cheesecake flavors.

It's hard to miss the cheese factory (according to the internet 1.3 million visit the factory annually).  That's a lot but not as many as Spirit Mountain Casino (3 million) or 2 million at Multnomah Falls).    Of course with an obvious sign like this it's hard to miss.

Shh, don't tell anyone but some of the best fish on the coast is located across the street at the Old Oregon Smokehouse.  Yes, it's in a doublewide and you have to eat in the car or outside but the fish is the best around. 

Well we found Cocoa but where did Little Fox scamper off to? 

 

Bend day 2 and 3

Hiya Gang.

LF, NB and CB are enjoying a few more days in Bend.  Here we are on a hike Cocoa suggested, it's called Tumalo Falls from Skyliners trail head.

You definately got a good view of Tumalo Creek as you worked your way up to the falls. 

Being that it was spring the falls were going like crazy.

Next up was Navy's hike, it was along Peterson Ridge and West Trails.  The views were amazing.

Navy doesn't take a bad picture.

So many mountains were out today.

The roommates forgot to bring lunch on this hike.  Can you believe it?
Luckily, us stuffies found a pretty good city park with some great views.

 

Bend Adventure for a fox and mice

Hiya Gang, 
Little Fox and gang deciding to explore Bend a charming city known for its hiking  and large number of breweries per capita.

First hike of the trip is to the Oregon Badlands with the hope of finding petroglyphs (they are here but we had no luck).  Along the way the wildflowers were out on our way to Badlands Rock.

 

A few early desert wildflowers - Larkspur, Wallflowers and some sort of desert parsley

Made it to the top of Badlands Rock.  Do you see the Cascade Range mountains in the background?

Onward, LF heard that this area used to be an old homestead and there is apparently proof of the homestead.

It's important for LF's grade in Archeology 304 that he finds the homestead since he could not find the petroglyphs.  

This looks like an old cistern.  Yep LF's portable carbon dating kit dates the rockwork to about the 1860s).    

Time to go celebrate at Spider City Brewing.  Today was a fundraiser for a Great Pyrenees Rescue and Navy was very intrigued by the animals (hint hoomans in Canada Navy wants one).  Cocoa and I had a beer or two or threee.

 

 

The oldest settlement west of the Rockies.....

 Did you guess Astoria, Oregon?

 Astoria is named after John J. Astor financier who sent fur traders to establish Fort Astor in 1811 (even though John J never visited).  Astoria has a very interesting history and a seedier side of history involving Shanghaiing (kidnapping drunk men and putting them on freighter's as crew). 

So much history and potential archeology research in town (like what he heck is that thing behind me) that this little fox can't address it all in one blog, plus I have my pals Navy and Cocoa with me. 

Navy Beanie is super curious and wants to explore  history of seafaring.  Astoria is the place to be. 

Can you see the ships in the distance.   Navy is super intrigued as they are loaded with grain and lumber wait in Astoria for river pilots to guide them down the Columbia River or out to the Pacific Ocean.

He is in the process of calling all of his contacts to get a spot on the ships. 

Cocoa Beanie wanted to explore some of the movie related history in town.  Sure, we could go to the Goonies house but Cocoa said that was too boring.

Instead Cocoa wanted to see the Astoria-Megler bridge and try and remember all the movies it's been in.

1) Short Circuit

2) The Goonies

3) Free Willie 2 (yes there were 2 Free Willie movies)

4) Kindergarten Cop 

Speaking of Kindergarten Cop Cocoa found this sign that talks a little bit about the history of Kindergarten Cop and the filming sites.

Do you recognize the school?  It's the one used in Kindergarten cop (yep, still a public school in use today).

Need a refresher about Kindergarten Cop check out this trailer from 1990.

Exploring downtown at the Doggie Dash

 

What a gorgeous weekend we had.  Today's Saturday (yeah, I know post dated blog....) and it's time for the yearly doggie dash in downtown.   You can see the "Portland Oregon" sign in the background. It had many previous slogans but the stag has been on top of that sign for a long long time.

Navy really took to this part of the walk.  He loves the bridges, the water, and the path along the water.  Probably reminds him of his time at sea. 

Besides doggie dashers (that's us) there were a ton of people out.  Bikers, walkers, runners and many dogs. 

Downtown did not disapoint.  That big pink tower to the right, guess what it's nickname is...

Yep, it's Big Pink. Now we are on the other side of theriver looking east.  

Finally, one last shot of all of us (great picture eh) but the Hawthorne Bridge looks good.  Did you know that Hawthorne ran one of the first insane asylums in Portland?

Cocoa has found something interesting....

Ah yes, Mill Ends Park, the World's smallest park.  This park has quite the history, it started as a creative writing project by a journalist in 1946.  He would often describe the lives of leprechauns who resided at the park. According to Fagan (the journalists, this was the only leprechaun colony east of Ireland and the department of transportation actually had to move the park on the rebuild of the road, Mill Ends Park now resides 6 inches west of its previous location).  For those of you who are dying to know, its 452 square inches (0.00007205784 acres). 

Wildflowers Galore

 Hiya Gang,
Little Fox here with my pals Navy and Cocoa Beanie.  After our day of adventuring around the gorge we decided to finish our mini-get-away with another hike. It's prime wildflower season so this longer hike should be a shoe-in for many-a-flowers.

Navy looks good with Mt. Hood and Horsethief Butte in the background.  

Navy found some Balsamroot and a few early Lupine. Navy also found Mt. Hood in the background. 

This hike is on an old ranch and besides being a state park its also a right of way for high voltage power lines.  At times you can hear the buzzing of the lines but it doesn't distract us from the views or flowers. 

Navy and Cocoa switched spots and Cocoa did just as good of job as Navy finding flowers. 

It's hard to take a bad picture up here. 

Being that it was prime wildflower season in the Gorge it was busy but there were a few pockets of solitude while hiking.

Even Sequoia got in on the pictures. 

So the next question is easy:  Where to next gang?