The group woke up this morning in McMinnville, Oregon where we hit the road for an hour and a half for our first visit of the day in Tillamook, Oregon where we got to visit the Tillamook creamery, and got an ice cream experience! The ice cream experience consisted of learning about the history of the company along with the many flavors of ice cream that was made there. We also got to learn about the other products made which were butter, cream cheese, sour cream, cheese, yogurt and custard. All their milk comes from 75,000 dairy cattle just in Tillamook County. Along with learning the types and flavors we got the opportunity to guess the attributes of the Marionberry pie ice cream before we tasted it. Those different qualities consisted of the creaminess, sweetness and different berries and pie crust that it consisted of. To wrap up that visit we got to taste test a flight of their ice creams which were, cookies and cream, mudslide and huckleberry. After that visit on a full stomach, we headed to the Marina for our second visit. On the way we made a stop to see the Pacific Ocean. It was windy but the students were excited because it was the first time seeing the ocean for some of them, so it was worth it. When we got to the Marina, we toured the visitors center first where we learned about the facilities and got to experience a touch tank, being able to touch starfish and sea urchins. We learned that Oregon receives some energy from the waves, just as we get some of our energy from wind turbines. Something neat that we learned there was that Oregon State University is one of two land, sea, space and sun grant universities in the country, along with Pennsylvania State. Not only did we get to see the visitors center, but we also got to see the “behind the scenes,” where we learned about the marine vet program, got to see the marine hospital and work areas that included skeletons. After that we stopped by their marine biology library and learned about their summer courses offered, we then made our way to The Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building. This building is one of a kind and uniquely designed to provide an evacuation spot for up to 920 people and is handicap accessible in a tsunami. We got to walk up the 79-foot ramp to the top of the building and we made our way down to the bottom, learning about their innovation lab that offers space for equipment, welding, 3D printing, a crane to move machinery and even a submarine! On the bottom floor we sat in an auditorium that was very bright and everything was wooded and modernized. This auditorium can seat 250 people for various meetings, webinars or film festivals. Once last thing we learned about at the GVMSB was the “Blue Heart” program that was focused on art that tells a story about climate-driven changes that are occurring on the western shoreline. Their stories were told with canvases being hung on the three levels of the new building. We rounded out our day with a pit stop at a fresh fish market for supper!