Husband didn't work and the kids didn't have school on Friday, so off we went to the coast. We thought we'd just go for the day.
Uh-huh.... right!
I should have known better!
We always drive from Eugene up I-5 to Corvallis so we can stop and get some Chipotle. (Eugene is getting a Chipotle but it's not open yet. My husband drives by every day to check the status... anyway...)
From Corvallis we either take the quicker hwy 20 over to Newport or the longer but more fun hwy 34 over to Waldport. This time around we did the fun 34 over to Waldport. It's a sweet drive and even though hwy 20 is also woodsy and nice, somehow 34 feels more woodsy and beautiful.
So from Waldport, we headed north on hwy 101 and stopped at Seal Rock. We had never stopped at this beach before! Oh my... talk about tide pools! We saw all kinds of beach critters... different varieties of starfish and sea anemones, two different kinds of mussels, barnacles galore of course, seal's, birds, we found our first sand crab! I had heard of these, but never seen one. At first we thought it was part of a crab that had been torn apart by a hungry gull... but then it began to burrow into the sand. Our boys dug it up and upon further inspection we realized it was some kind of small crustacean. We looked it up when we got home. Interesting little guys, sand crabs...
Anyway... so we had tons of fun at Seal Rock... the tide was low and we were able to climb over some rocks and through a trail to access another beach that was completely smooth and empty. We had it all to ourselves. It was such a blast and so beautiful. We stayed a long time.
We decided that we couldn't stand the thought of going home, so we got an ocean view room at the Best Western Agate Inn in Newport. From our room we had a great view of Agate beach and the Yaquina Bay lighthouse. The room was comfy and clean, we plan to stay there again in the future. The hotel has a nice pool but we - not thinking that we were staying the night - didn't even have our toothbrushes much less our swimming gear. There was also a restaraunt at the hotel, but we opted to eat at the Chalet.
The Chalet is this sort of unassuming place that we always eat at when we're in Newport. The food tastes homemade - not like it's dumped out of a can or heated up in a microwave. I always get the spaghetti - it's really good! They have really good comfort food and good prices. They are also open until 10pm at night, which works out great for us because whenever we go to the coast we always find ourselves having dinner much later than usual.
The next day we explored several different beaches and all were amazing! Agate beach, Ona Beach, Seal Rock again, and we also explored Cape Perpetua! I highly recommend that anyone going to the coast take the road to the Cape Perpetua Day-use area and drive up to the viewpont there. The elevation is around 800 feet and BEAUTIFUL. Wow. It just blew us away - and it was a cloudy day! We can't wait to go back again and catch it on a sunny day.
One of the really cool things about exploring the coast during the winter, or on cloudy, rainy, grey sort of days - is the solitude. We had these beaches more or less all to ourselves. At Strawberry hill there were a few other people sitting on the rocks, but everywhere else it was just us out there exploring. It was really awesome.
We also took the kids to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We are members so it's free for us, and we didn't have to stand in the long admission line. (You kinda feel like a rock star or something whenever you can just walk past a long line like that, the kids thought it was cool. lol) We got there right as it opened - 10am. At 10:30 they feed the otters, and at 11 they feed the seals and sea lions. So much fun to watch that.
We stayed a long time at the Sea Otter exhibit, talking to the volunteer there who told us all about the otters. They are interesting little guys - smallest mammals of the sea. The OCA has two Californian sea otters - Judge and Hunter, and one Alaskan sea otter who was rescued from the Alaskan oil spill. I'm not sure if I can spell his name right, but it was something like "Ialiak". They were sweet to watch. Kids love the OCA, especially the deep sea exhibit where you walk through glass tunnels and sharks swim all around you, and the petting areas where you can touch starfish, anemones, baby sharks, and other sea creatures. It's a really great place for families.
For breakfast we ate at this place in Newport Bay - a really touristy sort of place. I think the place was simply called "The Coffee Shop"? It was right across from Ripley's Believe it or Not. The place did not have very good coffee... and the serving sizes were outrageous and in our opinion extreme and wasteful... but I have to say - good OJ! I really enjoyed the orange juice. And the view was nice - we watched sea lions playing in the bay as we had our breakfast. Fun. We probably won't go back, but were glad we checked it out at least once.
For lunch we went to the Drift Inn in Newport. We love that place and always go. Good seafood chowder, good nachos, good everything. Very friendly people. Love their hanging artwork - salmon made from driftwood, clever.
We found a bunch of fossils and shells and cool rocks - some agate - at Ona Beach. It was a good day for it (it had rained a lot the night before I think) and we hit it just as the tide was going out. Lots of great tidepools there as well, but not as full of critters as we experienced at Seal Rock the day before. Ooooh we even found a sand dollar - whole, not broken! I never find those, so I was excited.
To get home we drove down to Florence. We stopped for a potty break at the Siuslaw Public Library (behind the 7-11 at the intersection of hwy 101 and hwy 126)... clean potties.
We also had some really delicious ice cream at BJ's in Florence before we drove 126 all the way home, the sun having already set behind us past the amazing coastal dunes.
I'm shaking out the sand today, and culling through our pictures. I love the coast. So much fun...
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Just got back from the coast.... *sigh*
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