After our life changing excursion in the Redwoods we headed up the coast to the house my folks had rented. My parents had encouraged us to stop at the sea lion caves if we had the time. We got there 15 minutes before they closed. It was really cool. They had an outside platform where you could look down at all the sea lions on the beach. There was a lot and they seemed pretty content hanging out in the sun.
Next we took an elevator 208 feet down into the sea lion cave. It was loud, and stinky, and awesome. All those sea lions! Their cave was huge and amazing, and they were all piled on top of each other enjoying the scene. Another extraordinary experience for us.
We got to my parents elegant vacation house on the rocky, Oregon beach. It was very nice to not be in a hotel! We got some local grub. Fish & Chips and clam chowder. excellent
The next morning we were looking through the industrial size telescope my parents brought (haha) and we saw whales!!!! Beautiful. When you see creatures so majestic and different from yourself, it puts your life in perspective. We all liked the whales a lot :) We also saw some starfish clinging on the rocks through the telescope. I like starfish.
That day we continued up the coast to our next rental place in Netarts, Oregon.
We stopped at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. Lots to see......huge crabs, starfish, jellyfish, puffins, too friggin-cute-for-words otters, an octopus, seals, and lots of FISH. Another great place to visit. We got some cool video that hopefully we will put on youtube some day.
A couple miles down the road was The Hatfield Marine Science Visitor Center at OSU. Very educational and fun. I got to touch a starfish!!
We got to our next residence and it was very nice. Alex got to sleep up in the loft, and Jeff and I had a bedroom with huge picture windows showing the ocean. Loved it!
A short path led to the beach and we hung out there quite a lot. We even built a swanky sandcastle.
It was too cold to go swimming in the ocean. But just getting our legs wet and exploring the beach at high and low tide was awesome.
The next day we went to the Tillamook Air Museum . A must see museum if you are into airplanes, blimps, WWII, history, or beautiful buildings. I really liked this museum, so did Jeff & Al.
Next stop the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. We saw the cheese being cut, packaged, etc and had some yummy, yummy ice cream.
The next day we took some time to relax and chill out. We saw the Cape Meares Lighthouse and the Octopus Tree. Just some more sights to blow our minds and make us feel wondrous.
Finally it was time to head home. This time we took the shorter route.
(We drove through Portland. I would love to go back and visit Portland again.)
As we were driving through Oregon we saw the signs for Bonneville Dam. Jeff wanted to stop and I was cool with that. I had no idea what an informative and interesting place the visitor center would be. We got to see fish, some quite huge, going up the steps to the other side of the dam. They have windows in the lower level of the building, underneath the water, to see the fish swim by. The dam was a visual rush of course. They also had a fish hatchery with a 10 foot sturgeon!!! Freakin Awesome!!!
By then we were happy and exhausted and headed home. We had such a cool vacation. What a good feeling to see other places, and learn so much about other creatures, history.......and ourselves.
Visit Oregon!
1 comment:
Wow, that is really cool! Hope to go there someday, too!
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