Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Most of the morning we spent in Newport, walking the boardwalk and enjoying the harbor. We saw the Yaquina Head lighthouse, which is more like a house. But we didn't go inside, it was too early. There were a bunch of harbor seals right along the dock and some star fish stuck to the dock poles. It was fun to see them so close up in the wild! Once the shops and attractions opened at 10am, we did a bit of shopping and then headed to the Aquarium and discovery center. The star fish here were not in the wild, but it was fun to touch them. The shark tunnel was pretty cool as well.
Shark tunnel - looking up!
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Jellyfish!!
Three Amigos...
The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was nice and it was the tallest one that we saw. Off the cliffs thre were some Naturalists set up with high tech binoculars and we could see baby seals with thier mother's on the Pebble Beach shore below. It was calfing season, so nobody is allowed down on the beach. Up the freeway a little bit was the Devil's Punchbowl and the Whale Watching Center. Josh had so many questions about whales that we were there for almost an hour! We only saw a couple of whale spouts, but no flesh. Darn it. We did some the cutest squirrels taking off with string cheese though! In Pacific City we stopped and saw the Teacup Rock and found some starfish in the wild. YAY! However, to get there were had to wait for the waves to go out and basically leap from rock to rock to get to the higher rocks where it was safe. The starfish were down close to the waves and there was no way we could reach them. But they were so pretty. Probably the craziest thing we ever did, considering the tide was quite violent at that time of day and with the storm coming in.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Devils Punch Bowl
Eating string cheese... see the wrapper by his foot?
That night we stayed at Camp Lookout State Park. Again, lucky to find an available spot. It had started to mist/rain/sprinkle before we even got there, so the site was soggy wet. The cloud cover was too much for a decent sunset, so instead we just walked the rocky beach and visited with a local who was looking for sea crystals. He was nice and told us the best place to find sand dollars was in Long Beach, WA. We hunkered down in the tent early that night due to the rain and played a game of questions. Reminded me of "The Newlywed Game" where we tested each other on if we knew certain things about each other. It was nice to just spend time together and we were so exhausted, we fell asleep pretty early.
Teacup Rock
Bright Starfish :)
Teacup Rock
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