The Beach :: Part 3

The new air mattress was wonderful… At first I wasn’t so sure of it, because when we put it on the bed, it made it really high. Instead of sitting on the bed, I had to climb on . Then, it was a little scary (Julie = wimp), so I didn’t sleep as close to the edge as I usually do…BUT… I was able to sleep, and didn’t wake up to a body full of aches and pains. That’s a plus in my book! I was awake and in the shower sometime after 6 am, and when I got back to the yurt, everyone was still sleeping. So I jumped on the laptop and worked on editing my pictures. I got all 599 edited and they are waiting to go in my gallery…. But then I took another 140-ish today, that needs to be edited.

After breakfast I sent Joe and the kids down to the beach, so I could pack everything up in peace. I got everything in the trailer and the back of the Durango, and then went to get Joe and the kids. I needed Joe’s help moving the futon back where they had it, so I could sweep.

After leaving the campground, we went to Yaquina Head, which is the 2^nd oldest (and the tallest) lighthouse in Oregon. We thought you just drove to the lighthouse, took a few pictures, and that was that… Boy, were we wrong…

We were a little surprised when we had to pay $5.00 to get in. In fact, Joe didn’t have any cash on him (we tend to use the debit card, and have the funds taken right out of our checking account) so he had to borrow $5.00 from Jared. Joe was all embarrassed about it. He kept saying, “Hurry up Jared, so they don’t see me borrowing money from my 9 year old!”… Poor Joe!

There sure was a lot more to see than just a lighthouse. We rounded the bend in the road, and were surprised to be an interpretive center. It had lots of info on the lighthouse, and on gray whales. (There are gray whales near Newport) The kids loved seeing the bones of gray whales, and the huge mural on the wall.

Then we walked to the lighthouse. You can drive, but since the sun was shining and it was a beautiful (though very windy) day, we decided to walk. I think it’s probably about a mile to the lighthouse… On the way we saw (way down below us, on some rocks in the ocean) a harbor seal and her pup. I took some pictures, but couldn’t zoom in as close as I wanted to. There was a lady there (who worked there) who let us look through a scope thing, and we got a good view of them…. That baby sure was cute!

The lighthouse was cool. You could even go inside it, and if you wanted to, climb the stairs to the top. They had a height limit, and Amanda was too short, so she couldn’t go (and it broke her heart). I told Joe that I would stay down with her, because with the arthritis in my knees, I didn’t think I could take all those stairs anyway. Turned out Jared didn’t want to go up either, and Alicia was too scared too, so just Josh and Joe went up… Joe said it was a bit of a disappointment, as you couldn’t really see out much from up there, because they had things roped off.

After the lighthouse, we went down to “Cobble Beach”… The entire beach was covered in the roundest rocks I have ever seen. Since the ground was sloped, it was *really* hard to walk on. When you put your foot down, it would slide down 6 or so inches. Amanda down right refused to walk on those rocks, and to tell you the truth, I was wishing I could refuse too! (*whispers* the kids did better than I did!)… But in the end, it was worth it. Down at the very end of the beach, we saw a baby harbor seal. It’s mother had left it on the shore. It was sooooo cute. We were good though, and kept our distance. We don’t want to mess with an animal in it’s natural habitat, and you never know where the mother might be! I took some pictures, and I hope they turn out… The baby was lying on it’s side, so all the pictures are “belly shots”. J

Unfortunately, it was high tide. I guess when it’s low tide, there are tons of cool things to see in the tide pools. The beach was also covered in oyster (I think) shells, so the seals (and maybe otters?) must come up on the beach to eat. We would have collected some, but they had signs posted saying NO COLLECTING.

By the time we made it back across the cobble beach, and up the bazillion stairs that led down to the cobble beach, we were all tuckered (and we still had a mile to walk back to the Durango!). My knees and hips (arthritis in both) were killing me, so I had to walk slowly back. Josh kept me company though, as the others went on ahead. (Josh always wants to hold my hand when we are out. )

There was also a Quarry Cove Intertidal Area, but we didn’t make it down there. We were just too tired to walk down the trail to get there. … But from up above you could see seals down on the rocks, and I wish we had gone down there first… Maybe we can go back sometime…

Our main disappointment is that we didn’t see any gray whales. They had been seen an hour before we got there, and they saw orcas the day before. We were hoping, beyond hoping, that we could see a whale. (I guess they have some resident whales off the coast). *sighs*… Better luck next time.

We ended up being there for 2 and a half hours. When we left, we were all starving, so we went into Newport to get a bite to eat. We ended up at Big Guy’s Diner, and boy, did they have some good food!… After we ate, we headed home. The three younger kids slept most of the way home…. They are all so wiped out from too much fun. J

So, now we’re home… And tomorrow I have a ton of laundry and such to do. Vacations are always so much work!

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