Stinkin' Fun

Last weekend we decided to check out the annual Elephant Garlic Festival in North Plains. We had always wondered what exactly a garlic festival was...would it be decorated with garlic cloves? Would there be people dressed up in togas and hats that look like giant cloves? Would there be all sorts of food made with garlic, such as garlic ice cream? It turns out that all of these things were at the festival, although I would not recommend the ice cream. One bite of that gave us super stinky breath for the rest of the day! There were also inflatable toys for the kids, a playground, lots of fair type food, and of course tons and tons of garlic. Everyone who came to the festival left with a complimentary clove. The kids really liked having their faces painted. Apparently, it was a first for them. Claire thought her pink unicorn was pretty neat. All day she would ask, "is my unicorn still on my face?"

Although we enjoyed checking out the festival, we didn't stay very long...the garlic ice cream left a bad taste in our mouth. :) We left from there and headed to Tillamook for a "quick" ice cream and lunch of cheese and crackers. It was tons of fun because we went with Chris's parents, siblings, and his Aunt Angie and Uncle James. The Dias family also came along. We were quite the caravan. Afterwards we went to the Tillamook Forestry Center on the way back home. If you've never been there, I would highly recommend it. It is a pretty new center and has great exhibits about all the huge wildfires that completely destroyed the entire forest about 50 years ago. Everything we see today had to be replanted. There is a good movie about it, and we all learned some fun history. Out the back of the center is a bridge that goes over the Wilson River. You can walk across, or hike down to the bank. We spent time by the water throwing rocks in and just enjoying the beautiful day. It was quite the spontaneous day, but we had a blast!