You just can’t.
Years ago I remember telling my husband we needed to stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory when we went to the Oregon Coast for our honeymoon, because they have delicious cheese samples and we had a really fun visit sampling cheese, watching the factory go about its business and eating ice cream. (And the factory is FREE to visit too-it even has FREE parking!)
And so when we headed to the coast a few weeks ago, I really wanted to bring my guys to see it because they love factories too. They love to see how things are made and sample neat foods. We started the day at Hug Point and the factory was a nice stopping point between the coast and Portland.
It seems like a lot of the good things haven’t changed at this place.
I’ve done a few posts for Tillamook lately and I knew we’d stop by between the coast and Portland so I let them know we’d be in the area, and I was thankful for LeeAnn who met us at the factory, took use for ice cream and explained a lot of the history of how the Tillamook Cheese Factory came to be. She even took a family picture (which we always forget to do when we’re on holidays.)
One of my favorite facts was that the ice cream is colored naturally at Tillamook and I know this is important because one of my sweet Seattle friends was just talking about how she thinks food dyes cause her kid to go crazy (thanks K!) so food dyes have been definitely on my radar lately and I love that Tillamook thinks about this too.
I also liked the idea that the Tillamook factory is a cooperative of around 100 dairy farms because buying their products makes me feel like I’m actually supporting local farmers and not just some big company that decided they wanted to make cheese. They’ve also been around a long time-like over a hundred years!
And my guys could have watched the cheese being made forever-there was so much to see through the giant windows out to the factory.
Their favorite part of course was sampling the cheese and they loved the squeaky cheese curds.
I’m glad we made a trip here and I know we’ll be back again some day. It’s neat that when my guys see the Tillamook yogurt and cheese we buy in stores, it reminds them of the trip we took and they ask me when we can go back to Oregon again. Hopefully soon.
(Thank you Tillamook for the tour and ice cream and Kelly from Sodapop Pr for arranging it, we had a great time!)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
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