Months ago we planned a trip to the Oregon Coast. I have been SO excited to go and spend time at the ocean. We took our vacation with our friends the Lindes, and we picked up Auntie in Portland in the airport to take with us.
We stopped at Multnomah Falls on our way. It was a fast stop but it was okay cuz we were there last summer, and it still looked the same. :)
We stayed in Portland the first night, then on Friday went to Lincoln City. We had a condo right on the beach and it was awesome! Friday was REALLY windy....it made our ears hurt. But of course we had a good time anyway! We took kites to fly but they broke before we could even get them up. Alex had the pro kites so he and Dave flew those until one of them broke too. It was windy.
Being chased by waves was everyones favorite thing to do
We had separate condos, but the kids thought it would be fun to have a pj party. We we had popcorn and watched Tom & Jerry before bed.
Saturday we got up and had breakfast together then split up. Lindes went to Newport to explore, and we explored the coast.
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| Harbor Seals just off the shore at Silex Bay |
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| Braden thought these looked like alligators. Auntie thought they were surf boards |
We stopped at the lighthouse at Yaquina Bay. It was really cool. Tanner and Auntie said it was their favorite part. We stood in line and got "bugged" by kelp flies that would land on you by the thousands, and the got to tour the lighthouse and walk up to the top. There were 111 steps. Colty got nervous and waiting on the landing halfway up for us. Dave and Braden stayed below because Braden wasn't tall enough to go up.
At the beach below the lighthouse there were harbor seals basking in the sun.
And the beach was called "Cobble" beach because it was covered with these black cobbles (rocks). They were hard to walk on but made a fun clinking when you did. And when the water would wash up on them they sounded like a rain maker and they settled back down. It was fun. We were told this is the place to see good tide pools, but we missed the low tide, so we will be back tomorrow.
One of the highlights of our condo was that it had an indoor heated pool. We swam everyday at least once, sometimes twice. All 3 of our boys got to be better swimmers, but especially Braden. He was finally brave enough to do more than just sit there. Dave said it was his favorite part to swim with Braden.
Since it was such a nice day on Saturday we played on the beach again, this time without having so much wind. The kids chased waves until they were drenched. Sometimes those waves are bigger than you expect. Poor Brady lost his sandals out to sea.
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| This is Mindy and I sitting with the condo in the background. It looked quite dumpy from the exterior, but the insides were really quite nice. |
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| Brady would do a "Me Awesome" dance when he succeeded in beating the waves up the beach! |
A beautiful sunset to end a wonderful day!
Sunday morning we got up and had breakfast, got our stuff cleaned out and went to Yaquina Bay again to see the tidepools. I couldn't wait to see a real star fish!
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| these anemones were really cool. We were told to touch but not remove, and the anemones felt like velcro or something when you touched them. They were awesome. |
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| holding a hermit crab |
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| Lovely seaweed accessories |
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| The purple along the rock are spiney sea urchins. The green are anemones that are open. They closed when you touched them. |
It was a foggy day, and I thought it was cool to see the lighthouse fading away.
We had such a great time on the coast. We were so glad that Auntie was able to join us, and that we were able to spend time with the Lindes.
