Oregon Coast

We have spent 2 weeks on the coast, half in Newport and the other in Astoria.  It’s been really fun to share the coast with the kids!  Living in Austin, they have only seen the ocean one other time when we visited family in Rockport.  Loralai learned SO MUCH ocean vocabulary in the short time we were there!  And a HUGE bonus is Oregon State Parks (of which there are so many!!!) have a Jr. Ranger program!!!!  It’s supposed to be for 6 year olds and up, but that’s just a minor detail.  I told the volunteer she was 5 and talked her into giving us our materials.  Wahoo!  We have one badge, a pencil, and a decal so far! 

Newport is a small, working town port.  We tried to eat some local fare a couple of times, hoping to find some good seafood, but could only find FRIED, FRIED, FRIED food, so we gave up and ate at the RV a bunch.  We discovered Red Box while in Newport as well which kept us busy many evenings as it rained most.  Here are my ratings on the movies watched… 1. The Vow-Liked it a lot and would watch it again, although it’s no Notebook.   2. Drive- Worst movie ever seen in my life!!!  I will argue this point passionately for years to come with anyone who disagrees.  3. Moneyball- Okay.  4. Alvin and the Chipmunks- Loralai liked it a lot.  5. One For the Money- Bad. 6. We Bought a Zoo- Bad.

When it wasn't raining (too bad) we made a fire and played outside.

At our first arrival in Newport, we set up the RV as quickly as possible and hurried to take the trail just a few feet from our camping spot at South Beach State Park that read “1/2 Mile to Beach”.  We were all so psyched to see the ocean!  The sign should have actually read, “Way More Then ½ Mile to Beach Through Mosquito Infested Forest”.  We moved quickly to out pace the bird-sized mosquitoes and arrived at the beach!!!!  Loralai and I immediately ran to the waves to get our feet wet, and for Loralai her legs and arms wet as well.  We all walked along the shore and to a nearby jetty.  As luck would have it, it was low tide and we saw starfish, sea anemone, mussels, and lots of other sea creatures in the rocks of the jetty.  So cool!

Later we would return to the beach and look for low points in the sand to dig up clams (never found any), crabs, and other yet to be identified crayfish like things.  We loved this!

Look what my Big Girl did!

We also visited the beach one windy day to play in the sand.  We didn’t last too long as it was especially cold and L fell in the water while wading around and we had to leave with it being 50 degrees.

Here are some of the other things we did in Newport, OR.

Marine Center- FREE!  And awesome for little kids and adults!  They had lots of tanks to view sea animals, and a touch pool and lots of marine history.  We were sure to go at feeding time and got to see them feed all the touch pool creatures and the Giant Octopus, Pearl.  She got fed 2 fish, 1 squid, and a clam.  Giant Octopuses lived just 3 years.  And there you have all of our new found Octopus knowledge.  Thank you Marine Center!  Highly recommended!

The Touch Pool.

They even have a touch pool for the vertically challenged!

Watching Pearl get fed.  And yes, we're not happy for some reason at the moment.

Lighthouses- There are lots of them along the Oregon coast and have so much history to them!  We actually enjoyed walking through these and thinking about what it would be like to live in and run a light house.

Kitchen in a live in lighthouse used in 1874.

Super windy at this lighthouse!  How y'all lik'in Joe's hair?

Devil's Punchbowl

Cool to see, but this is IT and there's really no good lookout point to even see it.

One day I tried to take the girls to see some tide pools at low tide, but while walking down to the pools, L tripped.  Face down on the cement.  I carried her (and Bean) back to the car for some doctoring.

And juice.

She did a good job of scraping her knees up.

While I took care of L, Bean kept busy eating croutons.

It wasn't long before all was well, but L said "No Tide Pools, Mom."

Newport Aquarium- Barely worth it and really expensive ($18 adult, $12 kids 3-12).  They had some nice tanks inside for the kids to view different sea life.  Outside they had an octopus tank (lame, octopuses like to hide you know and you couldn’t see anything), a sea lion and seal tank (pretty cool to see them swim around), an aviary of sea birds (cool cause it was mating season and the birds were doing some pretty fancy swimming and fluffing around, but small), and a sea otter tank with 4 otters.  The otter tank was the most interesting with one otter that hung out right by the viewing area and would clean himself and swim around.  We also got to see them get fed.  It kept us busy for a couple of hours.  I will say they were opening a new wing the following weekend called “The Sea and Me” that is an interactive section for kids that may make the high fee worth it?

Bare with me.  I got my money's worth in pictures!

They had 3 of these tunnels to walk through.

Sea Lion and Seal Tank

At one point L got too close and he bit the glass.

Taken in the tunnels.

All of the Oregon Parks have a recycling program, so Loralai also learned lots about recycling as part of her Jr Ranger work while here.

For his last meal in Newport, I got Joe this Super Burger!  He was so adorably happy!

On our way to our next place on the coast, we stopped at Tillamook Cheese Factory on a stranger's (with kids) recommendation.

It was good stop.  We learned a little about what it takes to make cheese and got some ice cream!  If IKea sold dairy products, it would be just like this place!

We also visited Astoria for a week.  This is where GOONIES was filmed!!!!  Ahhhh…..says a die-hard fan.   It was also where Kindergarten Cop and several other movies were filmed.  (Eat your heart out Maggie!)

My only regret is that I didn't watch the movie while I was there.  It was surprisingly hard to find!

Astoria was a town of about 10,000 people on the most NW tip of Oregon, with the Pacific Ocean to the West and the Columbia River to the North.  It was nice to be in a slightly larger town then Newport.  We stayed at Fort Stevens State Park.  We arrived on Memorial weekend, which meant this city of a campground was PACKED!!!  Sometimes there were so many camp fires burning at the same time that it was hard to breath!  But it only lasted the weekend.  Come Monday, 3/4 of the park cleared out and it was like we had it to ourselves.

Driving  the Army jeep at Fort Stevens

Probably the best thing we did while in Astoria was to get clip on child seats for both of our bikes.  Fort Stevens, where we were staying, has miles of paved trails for biking and Loralai peddling up hill with training wheels and dress on, wasn’t getting us very far!  So Joe squeezed the $$$ out of me for the seats, and we had so much fun peddling the girls around to go to the beach, see a shipwreck, go to movies in the park, the ranger station, and visit the fresh water lake.  Bean was a champ on the bike, but Loralai especially loved it! 

At one point Joe stayed with the girls on the bikes while I walked up a grassy sand dune to see the beach and 3 deer walked across my path, just 5 feet in front of me. 

Ship Wreck, Peter Iredale, over 100 years ago.

Besides hangout at Fort Stevens, we also did the following while in Goonie Land…

Visited Haystack Rock with the girls where The Goonies car chase scene was filmed.  We went at low tide so we could see the tide pools as well.  Still didn’t compare to the stuff we accidentally saw at the jetty our first day in Newport, but cool.  The thing about parking along the beach here, is that you don’t get to actually park ON the beach and you can’t even see the beach behind the dunes, so due to these  things, I under shot where Haystack Rock was on the beach by at least a mile.  But after parking, unloading two kids, and walking UP a hill and the dunes to find this out, I took walking 2+ miles round-trip while carrying a 20lb baby and bribing a tired and needing to pee 4 year old to keep following me, QUICKLY, was the lessor of two evils.  The walk there was relatively easy, Bean only demanding to be put down so she could play in the sand once every 4 minutes and Loralai staying mostly on dry land.  We had fun walking in the tide pools around Haystack Rock.  As for the return, it took twice as long, but we got to the truck eventually.

Starfish!

Haystack Rock

We also found out to our surprise, that a tiny National Park exists near Astoria, The Lewis and Clark National Historical Park.  Score!  So we visited and learned a lot.  Oh, and got a Jr badge, and patch!  Sacagawea is my new hero!  When she started the 2.5 year journey, she had a 2 month old with her!

This is a replica of the fort Lewis and Clark built for their 3.5 month stay near Astoria.

Joe standing near one of the rooms fire place.

Loralai was pretending to be a "Mother" during the 1800's and was a great hostess to us, offering us water and salmon to eat.

I also took the girls to play at Port-o-Play, an indoor play space one day.  It was inside the gym of an old elementary school.  While there, I looked into their drop-in childcare and signed the girls up for the following day.  Date!

On our night off, I got my nails done at A-Nails (Not great, but they probably won’t cut you.) and rushed back to the RV to pick up Joe.  We went to a fancy restaurant and just ordered appetizers.  Okay.  And filmed some movie scenes at The Movie Museum that’s inside the old town jail.  It was fun!  And we won the “Name That Movie” game.  Prize?...two plastic gold coins.  Score!  Then we rushed to pick up our girls who had done great!  Even my little Bean, who took an hour nap during her 4.5 hours there.

We also road the historic trolley up and down the river walk.  It was neat to learn more about the city while ridding for only $4, see sea lions, and best of all, we met some friends with a 7 year old girl wearing a sparkly purple dress!  I offered them some gum, and they offered for us to go eat with them at The Wet Dog after the trolley ride.  Awesome, Locals!  We accepted and enjoyed some oyster shooters and Joe had “the BEST beer of this LIFE”.  The girls played and ran around the table.  They walked us to our truck and we said our Good-byes.  It was so cool to meet people who would just invite us to hang out with them!  See, these people DO exist!  And it inspires me to be that person who I want to be, but sometimes am not, cause I’m told it’s so weird and I don’t want anyone to think I’m a psycho.  So if I’m hanging out with you in Austin, and we encounter some out-of-towners, don’t be surprised if I invite them to join us, especially if they have pink hair!  It really was cool.  Be kind people!  Be open!  Be friendly!

They got to ring the bell!

Loralai and Onyx

Coast

Misty, Rainy

Exploring, Playing, Wading

Taste the Salty Air

Oregon