Newport, Oregon

Wednesday, October 5th

We spent the day driving south toward Florence, OR.  As we drove, we pulled over whenever we saw a sign that intrigued us.  The first stop was at Seal Rock, which was a set of large outcropping of rock right at the water’s edge.  At Seal Rock, F took the two older kids while I stayed back with the babe, when he came back, I went off on the trail while the kids ran ahead to show me what they had seen.  Seal Rock is gorgeous!

 

Up next came Devil’s churn. The name says it all.  I would not want to get stuck or fall into this part of the water.  Devil’s churn is where there is a small inlet where the ocean water is force up and creates a spray of water and the water is definitely churned.  It was cool to see the waves come in and splash up against the rocky coast.

And because I love the look of lighthouses, their history, and how unique each one is, I was loving the fact that the coast is full of lighthouses.  From our hotel, we could see two! F was kind enough to stop and explore them with me.  We found Heceta Lighthouse, but was sad to see you had to pay for parking and pay to enter the lighthouse.  With how many lighthouses that were close by, we didn’t pay, but got our fee in the sand instead.  B was napping during some of our stops, which meant F and I took turns staying with her in the car. So, the only pictures I have of the lighthouse are from the beach. 

F found a river that ran into the ocean. When the waves came in, it pushed back the river. When the waves receded, the river water again flowed into the ocean. I think he could have watched it all day!

Here is B when she woke up, happy as can be!

We had heard of place called the Sea Lion Caves near Florence.  We decided to check it out.  After a long walk down stairs, a path along the coast line, followed by an elevator ride, we reached the cave.s.  We were able to learn about sea lions, could get another view at Heceta Lighthouse.

The cave was pretty cool, the only downside – the sea lions were out to see to feed (we did get a discount because of it, and knew that we might not see any). We did, in fact, see a group sea lions that were swimming along the coast line. When the sea lions are in the cave, they fill up the rocks and are all around.  If you look closely on the right side, you can see the sea lions.  It’s difficult to take pictures with the waves moving around and the sea lions swimming, but I was able to get some of them in the frame!

Next stop, this place is called Smelt Sands.  The waves come up the sand and larger waves crash over the top of the rocks.

 

Another lighthouse! Yay!!  This light house is Yaquina Lighthouse.  The first time we went to the lighthouse, we had the GPS give us directions, which took us out and around the lighthouse before reaching it.  We discovered later that all we needed to do was follow the road on which our hotel was located and it pretty much got us right to the lighthouse.  I took the older kids to the lighthouse. As we were standing in a doorway looking at one of the rooms, a really creepy guy came right up behind us and tried to make conversation.  He got a little too close for my comfort, so we moved on and stayed away from him!  One thing K liked learning about at this lighthouse was the cistern located just outside that collected the rain water. 

Time for some relaxing time at the hotel pool. It was long and cold walk from our room to where the pool was located and it didn’t last long, but we still enjoyed it.  The water was cold, but we did have the entire pool area to ourselves.  On of the perks of vacationing off season.

For dinner, we bbq’d at a picnic area right by the lighthouse. We were there just in time to watch the sunset.

After we cleaned up from dinner and headed back to our hotel, we grabbed our coats and walked down to the beach.  We could see the beach from our room, but it was fun to be at the beach.  The beach is very flat, which meant that when the waves receded you could walk out quite a ways with it. The kids enjoyed the game F started by following the waves out and then running away at the waves came up the beach. What a beautiful day on the coast!