Tillamook

The trip this summer was mostly about the beauty of the Oregon Coast, but we did make a few educational (and in this case yummy) stops, one of those was the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  The city of Tillamook sits west of Portland on Tillamook Bay.  Located on the bay and also having 5 rivers, the city is known for fertile land and mild temperatures which makes for happy cows.  Not as happy as California cows of course.  The dairies there are part of a dairy cooperative called the Tillamook County Creamery Association, and the Cheese Factory is where they produce their cheese.  They have recently added a modern visitors' center which was a fun way to spend an hour or two.
When driving through town, the factory is hard to miss.

 The factory used to allow visitors onto the factory floor, but in the late 60s that was (thankfully) stopped due to safety regulations.  Now you can view some of the factory from a viewing area up above.

 Here they were checking cheese blocks for correct formation.  Those in the bin behind the checker were not acceptable.  Those were then sent to the cheese shredder for bags of grated cheese.

 This area wrapped the finished cheese in its packaging.

 The best part of the self guided tour was that it ended with cheese samples.  I can't say for sure, but we might have spent A LOT of time in this area.  Duh.

 The new visitor center has a huge food court with all things made from dairy.  A vegan or someone lactose intolerant would have been very sad at this food court.  Since I'm neither, it made me happy.  We had taken our time in Cannon Beach that day, so by the time we arrived at the factory is was dinnertime.  We had planned to share some cheese curds and macaroni and cheese - healthy stuff!  Sadly, the cheese factory was OUT OF cheese curds, so we just had mac and cheese.  It was very good.  But the ice cream was even better.

We still had a little over an hour drive to the next stop in Newport, so we couldn't spend too much time eating dairy products.  Tillamook was a quick but fun stop.

A Big Difference

When I arrived at school yesterday morning at 7:00, it was 58 degrees.  When I left school at 4:00, it was 107.  Almost a 50 degree difference in temperature.  When the hot weather comes, we are not usually so cool in the mornings.  Must mean fall is here!

A School Chuckle

Spending most of my life at school with little kids means I experience chuckles, giggles, eye rolls, and belly laughs on quite a regular basis.  Some are funny enough to share...

Last year, the state of California passed a new Ed Code law that went into effect this school year requiring Title I (low income) public schools to provide feminine hygiene products in at least 50% of the restrooms on campus.  Research has shown that girls who come from low-income homes are likely to miss school several days each month due to their family's inability to afford these products.  The state will reimburse schools for these products.  While this is not something I have experience with since I teach the little kids, I have several colleagues in the upper grades who purchase these products, along with other hygiene products like deodorant to help out their students who need them.  So while this requirement may seem trivial, there certainly is a need for it, hoping to keep kids in school.

As with most things in public education, passing the law seems like the easy part.  Actually implementing the plan isn't always easy.  Our facilities department was tasked with putting the storage containers with the product into the restrooms.  Facilities is known for showing up to work on a project and leaving before anyone ever sees them, but the project isn't always executed correctly.  We have three multi-stall girls' restrooms on campus.  There is one in the main building, one in the breezeway between the main building and the playground, and one in the new building.  Facilities put those containers in the main building and the breezeway restrooms.  The only problem is the upper grade students don't use the restroom in the main building.  The main building houses kindergarten and first grade classes only, and therefore the restroom in there is for those kids.  The new building houses all the 3rd-6th grade classes, and that building's restroom didn't get any containers.  And since the teachers are always the last to know about anything, the only reason we were aware of the new products was because the first graders found them.  Upon the daily cleaning by the custodian, it would seem the little girls thought of them as good wall decor items as he found them stuck all over the walls.  A work colleague of mine recounted when a couple of his first grade girls came back from a restroom trip with them stuck to their hands and clothes, proudly announcing to the class that there were "stickers in there!".  Their innocence is so cute!  Imagine going through your life thinking they are stickers and then finding out what they are really for.

Anyhow, since then, the product has been removed from the main building's restroom and put into the new building and a quick information meeting between the district nurse and the upper grade girls has been scheduled.  Both good plans, but thankfully they were put in the wrong place to start or we never would have been able to laugh about the 'stickers".  

No Way!

Yesterday, the results of the 2018 Harris Poll were released.  The Harris Poll is a national poll that identifies the brands which consumers most identify with and consider the "best".  Because it is a national poll, regional or local brands aren't really included.  Some might question the "best" label on these brands when there might be local or regional brands that are better.  But it would make sense that the ones most commercial and most widely known would be chosen.  It would make sense except for one category...BEST MEXICAN RESTAURANT.

I would have to STRONGLY disagree with that claim, as would our local TV station.  Having lived my life in Southern California, my experience with Mexican food is based on really good, homemade, authentic (minus the lengua or tripas) Mexican food.  In my travels across country, the norm is that the further away I get from home, the less authentic and the more "Taco Bell" the Mexican food becomes.  In fact, when I lived in New England, Taco Bell WAS where most people got their Mexican food.
While this is not a knock on anyone who likes Taco Bell.  Fast food is fast, convenient, and has its place.  But to claim it's the best Mexican food is insane.  It is barely Mexican food at all, let alone the best.

The Coast, Part 2

After leaving Astoria, we spent the next couple of days in Seaside and Cannon Beach.  This was by far my favorite area visited on the trip.
Seaside is a fun boardwalk town known for its sunsets.  We were in between Seaside and Cannon Beach and mostly Seaside in the evening so I have only a couple of pictures from there.  We had one of the best meals at an Italian restaurant in Seaside, but sadly (or not) no pictures.  Sunset was beautiful, even with the clouds that rolled in.

Along the boardwalk, these street lights have sea life decor like this starfish.  They are so pretty.

While Seaside is a lot of fun, Cannon Beach was the town I enjoyed the most.  It is so quaint and pretty and quite different than the other beach towns in Oregon. 

Cannon Beach's beach is well known due to its Haystack rock.  

 The beach is just beautiful!

 One thing I loved about the Oregon Coast was that you'd be in the forest surrounded by trees, and just on the other side the cliffs drop to the ocean.  It is much different than the Southern California Coast which is mostly flat with very few trees.

Cannon Beach was the only town in which I could see myself living.  Who knows, maybe some day.  

There Ain't No Tired Like First Week of School Tired

This week, I began my 19th year of teaching.  After two years of chaos and unprofessionalism on the part of our "leader", the calm manner in which we started this school year has me cautiously optimistic over the 2018-19 school year.  I am still in 3rd grade, a high-stakes testing grade, which doesn't make me thrilled, but since I am better prepared with what to expect from the kids and myself adds some stability to my thoughts on that as well.
I am EXHAUSTED this weekend.  All I want to do is lay low today, but if I do, the piles of work that I brought home to work on will somehow multiply.  That's the thing about the beginning of the year.  In addition to the teaching part, there is more to create, do, write, think about, sort, color, prep, etc. than there are hours in the day.  I tell myself every year to not make those things "everything", to stop at the end of the school day and not worry about it, to not let it take up ALL my time.  But if it's not done, others will be let down - teammates, administrators, and most importantly the kids.  Things settle a bit as far as work load in a couple of months, but right now there doesn't seem to be an end to that tunnel.
I brought a teacher bag of work home with the plan of hammering it out last night, just to get it over with so Saturday and Sunday weren't about school. I only got through about half of the bag in between falling asleep twice.  While I write this, I'm having my coffee, trying to revive myself after a hard sleep.  I think I have a couple of hours left of school work to do...that is if I can stay awake.  Two days down...only 178 days to go!

The Coast

The main purpose of this summer's road trip was to spend some time along the Oregon Coast.  I'd heard nothing but good things about it so the bulk of our trip was spent traveling North to South on the 101 (aka Highway 101 if you aren't from California where we put "the" in front of the freeway/highway numbers - ha ha!).
We departed Portland, heading west to Warrenton where we met up with some friends.

 The view of the pond out in the back of their house.

 The Clatsop County Beach is a "driving beach".  A ten mile strip of this beach allows for passenger cars and trucks.

But we had to watch out for jellyfish.

This area is also where the Columbia River (right) and the Pacific Ocean (left) meet.  

 I was amazed to learn how important the Columbia is to the Northwest.  Not living near a river (well I live near two that never have any water) it was just fascinating to see and understand how much it is used

 Standing on the bank of the river, looking at Astoria.

 Huge cargo ships and tugboats go up an down the river hourly.  The river is only deep enough in this section right down the middle, so they can only come through one at a time and often have to have special drivers sent in just for the this stretch.

 We call seagulls ocean rats, but these two were quite photogenic.

The foxglove was in bloom everywhere...swoon.

 That evening, we crossed over the bridges to Astoria for the night.  Astoria was the setting in the 80's movie "The Goonies", and I ALWAYS thought the story took place along the ocean.  Astoria actually overlooks the Columbia River, NOT the ocean.

 The view from our room.

Some sites along the river/old railroad tracks.

I was a little bit starstruck over being in The Goonies' hometown so we researched some of the sites to find them, but mostly ran into this...

However the jailhouse (Oregon Film Museum) and the Courthouse were available for pictures.

Next stop - Seaside and Cannon Beach