August 4, 2001 - Cloudy, high upper 60’s, lows low 50’s.

     Marilyn had never seen the Spruce Goose and since it’s recent move to McMinnville Oregon from San Diego it wasn’t that far away. The Spruce Goose was Howard Hughes design for the world’s largest floatplane. It only flew once with him at the controls and has been mothballed ever since. They have built a beautiful new building to house it and it’s only been open a couple of months. They still don’t have the airplane completely together yet but close. They still need to add the wing tips and rudder.

     One disappointing thing was that the inside of the plane was not open to tourists. It seemed pretty strange to me but since the plane was not handicap accessible yet no one can go in it. They hope to make it that way some day but in the meantime no one can tour the interior of the plane. There were lots of other cool planes including a Ford Tri Plane and a P-38 Lightning. Admission is $9.00 and worth it if you really like old planes.

     The next stop was a music and art fair in Tierra Del Mar. It’s a tiny little village right on the Oregon coats. It’s really fun to see a community get together and put on an event like this. There were may be a hundred people milling around which probably represented 75% of the population. There were some very nice art and craft exhibits and live music.

     It was now time to actually hit the beach. We haven’t walked on the beach since we’ve been here so was over due. We drove around for a while looking for the state campground but ended up being further than we cared to drive. We turned around and headed back south toward Pacific City. We pulled over along side the road right next to the beach. Up and over a little sand bar and we were walking on the beach. It’s a very long beach with lots of activity. There was kite flying, shore fishing, picnicking and people just out for a walk. The only bad thing about this beach it there wasn’t any drift wood along the shore and therefore not very good beach combing. We walked around for a while just enjoying the surf and fresh air. Marilyn wrote an I Love You note in the sand that I liked a lot because it was for me.

Marilyn writing a love note in the sand

Then it was back to camp and Mocha time. We had a nice supper and just kicked back for the evening. All in all a very nice day.