Oregonian Vacation, Last Day

The first part of our last full day at the coast was spent at the Seaside Aquarium. We'd initially wanted to make the drive to the more impressive one in Newport, but we decided we'd spent enough time on little excursions already, so much that the kids were sick of the car, so we settled for this one. It wasn't bad.


We fed the seals. Look at those eyes.



They were so cute.


I don't know what Ringo was smoking when he said he'd like to be in an octopus's garden. I can't think of anywhere freakier. Imagine getting mauled by an octopus. . . No thanks.



Sea creatures are so peculiar.



And fascinating.

I can't help but wonder how it would feel to get strangled by a seastar.

After the aquarium we wandered back to the hotel. Cora, Jane and I wanted to walk to the nearby shops to pick out some souvenirs. Ryan and Oliver stayed behind to relax.

We looked at a few touristy stores. Both the girls chose stuffed animals; Jane got a cute red crab, and Cora got a grayish seal.

Then we went into The Buzz, a fantastic candy store I'd seen the first day. I knew Ryan wouldn't want any part of it, and I didn't want to feel rushed if he'd been waiting outside, so that's the main reason I planned a mandatory outing with just the girls and me. =)


They had a copious case of various enticing treats. Notice the top row. My brain thinks the tag for 'stout truffle' says 'trout truffle'. I should have excitedly asked the lady about those.
Can you guess which one I picked? Although the trout option was mighty tempting, I settled on the pink cupcake truffle. It. was. delectable. So creamy and heavenly inside. Not overpoweringly sweet. Just right. I wanted more, but I refrained.


Look how cute!

Cora picked a sizable peanut butter cup and Jane got a chocolate covered s'more.

Look at those fat tubs of circus peanuts! I'm kind of kicking myself for not grabbing one. I wonder if they taste any better than the bagged variety.

Like a kid in a candy store...

It was raining considerably all day, so we ducked into the carousel mall to eat our chocolaty treasures. Then we eventually made our way back to the hotel.

We'd passed these beauties several times, and at last I paused to capture them on camera.

The rest of the day was spent just hanging out. It got late sooner than we knew it. Hungry, we drove around in search of food. I think it was 9-ish when we decided to eat at DQ.

Then, once again, we went back to the hotel to begin wrangling our belongings together so we could depart for home fairly early the next morning.

We did hit the road sometime before 8:00, and on our way home we took a slight side trip to stop at the cemetery where Becky's grave is. =( She is buried next to her brother Ben. Her parents had a stone made with both of their names together.

It was raining quite a bit, though you can't tell.

It says "brother and sister" on the bottom. And that's a kitten with a ball of yarn above her name. It still makes me so sad to think of everything she didn't get to do before she left. I had so much hope for her. It's hard to believe it's been almost a year.

We had a safe, uneventful drive home.

The trip to Oregon was a good one. We had fun and got to see some marvelous expanses of nature.

Oregonian Vacation, Day 4

Day 4 was just dandy.

We drove to an old shipwreck not too far away. I can't remember the name of the place, and I don't feel like looking it up, so just enjoy the two neat photos I took of it. I believe it ran aground sometime shortly after 1900.





Our next destination was the lovely Astoria. I sure liked all the old houses.

The pink trim on this one was brighter in real life.
I didn't take any other house pics since I was distracted by the super steep streets marked with "dangerous intersection" signs.

We went to the Astoria Column. I hadn't ever heard of it before, but my stepdad, who knows all when it comes to the Oregon Coast, recommended it to us.

Here's Ryan's head next to it.


We thought it was remarkable.

We climbed the 164 steps to the tippy-top.

It was a pretty difficult feat for a lazy bones like me. I would have been toast if not for the handrails. All the climbing and winding around was slowly but surely doing me in.

But the view from above was worth the work.

The views were stunning.


Here . . .


There . . .

And every which way. (I bet you thought I was going to say "everywhere".)




We didn't know about this until we were at the top, but at the little office/gift shop at the bottom they offer little wooden gliders that you can throw from way up there. Other people had some, but noticing that we had none Oliver piped up, "I want an airplane!" Some guy heard him and gave him one. What a nice thing to do. He let it loose and we all watched as it silently soared through the sky for a minute or two. It ended up landing somewhere we couldn't see. It was pretty cool, and a fun idea.


Next stop was Cannon Beach. When we got there we ate at a place called Lumberyard Rotisserie & Grill. It was pretty good.

Then we parked somewhere and followed our senses to the beach. What a beautiful place to behold.




It was a bit nippy by this time of day.

Some chap observed me taking the above picture and offered to take one with me in it. Since he assumed I was part of the family.

So that was nice.

We walked and watched the waves for a while, then traipsed to our car so we could go back to the hotel for some resting up.

We saw these flowers on our way down the street.

Ryan and the girls hung out at the hotel while Oliver and Mommy went out to play.

We had gotten this Batman glider for him the day we got to Seaside.

We walked down the beach again. I wanted to go past the Seaside Aquarium to see what time it opened the next morning, but all Oliver wanted to do was fling himself in the sand.

He noticed this sand hole and kept falling into it for fun.

I eventually got my way and accomplished my mission before we returned to the hotel to do whatever else we did that night. Probably more Disney Channel.

Oregonian Vacation, Day 3

The third day dawned. I went on a jog along the beach. It wasn't exactly the ethereal experience I had envisioned, but it was beautiful. Easy, breezy, and beautiful.

When I returned, Ryan set out on a jog of his own while I got ready for the day.

Later that morning we all spent a while enjoying the beach.

We swung.


I took a picture of my feet.

It was kind of a chilly day, but the sand was so toasty-warm and soft.







The outside temp was I think mid-'60s that day. Way too cold to be swimming in the much colder than mid-'60s ocean. And yet, there were crazy people loitering in the water. The three ladies in the background of these photos were busy wave jumping. They would not get out of the water! They were there for a long time. I was cold on the beach wearing a light jacket, clamdiggers, socks and shoes. I couldn't think of many reasons I would ever opt to be nearly naked in the frigid sea. Maybe if there was a cash prize, or perhaps if there was a huge sack of candy being swept slowly to sea and I was the only one around to rescue it. Maybe those three amigas were fulfilling a dare. That is the only logical explanation.


We built a sand castle using only our hands, and sticks we found on the beach.

The girls and I mostly helped with the moat and outer wall. Ryan did the majority of the castle.

We liked it.


Then we went back to the hotel to rummage for lunch before heading out for a walk.

Here's the view from our room.



And a couple of random shots from our walk.

At some point we went on the ever-popular carousel.

I rode along with them. The friendly operator guy noticed me trying to turn around and take pictures while the ride was in progress, so at its conclusion he offered to let my kids pose together for a better photo memory. (We were among the last to board, so we were scattered among the animals.)




Unfortunately, even with help, I was still unable to capture a good picture. =)


Later we went out for pizza.

Check out this cool gumball machine. I LOVED it. The color, the size, the retro look of it.

Cora looked really enthused about it.

The pizza was really good. We devoured it so fast I couldn't even pause to take a picture of its yumminess.

We dined in a back room by ourselves. After the pizza was consumed, Ryan noticed a memo on the piano that said it was okay to play on, and that it was over 100 years old. He took the liberty of playing a tune or two. He's getting really good at pianoing.

We ended the day by going for a swim in the hotel pool. The water was just right. We lucked out and had the whole place to ourselves for half an hour.

Only three more entries for this trip. . . Then I have a nice "random" post planned, along with some priceless pictures of Renee's birthday party. Get ready, get set.