Oregon Coast...

Warning this post contains 44 pictures so it's REALLY long!!

So we left for our trip at 3:30am so needless to say the girls would still be really tired.  This is how I found Maddie at one point of the trip.  Doesn't look very comfortable to me!

This was the first fall that we stopped at on the falls tour outside of Portland. It's Horsetail Falls.  Very beautiful!  The girls we in aww over it!

The top of the falls, eventually I plan on stitching a couple pictures together.  Should be interesting to see how it turns out!

Here is the world famous Multanoma falls.  It truly is remarkable!

Kodie was having some sort of issue and didn't want to get her picture taken with the girls. I think she may have been a little overwhelmed by all the people and new stuff we were experiencing.

Kodie didn't want to climb to the bridge with us so John and her stayed back to take a picture of the rest of us on the bridge.

Here is Bailey, Lacey, Maddie and I.

From the falls route we went on to Portland, drove through their lovely Interstate system and onto Tillamook.

Here we are!  John is salivating over the thought of cheese curds and the girls and I are excited for the ice cream!  Such YUMMY ice cream and really cheap!

Here we are watching as they are cutting, weighing, and packaging cheese.  Some of those jobs look SO boring.  Glad someone is willing to do what they do so we can have yummy cheese!

Then off to find our campsite!

This is where we will be staying for 4 days.  A nice roomy spot but a little close to the road for my taste.  Next time we will hopefully reserve our spots a little earlier to get a better spot.  It all worked just fine thou!

Now that all the work of setting up is done, our first steps on the beach.  The girls were in awe!

They came prepared with their water shoes and buckets in tow!

Bailey took this picture of John and I at the beach.

After being at the beach there is always TONS of sand on your feet so they are so nice to provide a foot washing station that the girls wanted to wash their sea shells too!

The beach where we stayed.  Can't complain that the beach is only about 250 yards from out camp spot!

After Kodie was being stubborn about going out on the beach we told her she could stay up by the campground while we went beach combing at low tide.  After about 15-20 min she decided that she didn't want to be alone at the inlet to the beach any longer.  She came crying to us saying that she needed us and wanted to walk the beach with us.  After she got past her issues she was so glad that she came out with us and decided it was fun.  This is Lacey consoling Kodie after she met up with us again.

So we were on our way to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  We were driving by Seal rock and thought we spotted a whale.  With closer observation we figured out it was just a rock.  Because of low tide rocks that weren't out their the day before were showing through now.  We all laughed about it after the fact!

So onto the Aquarium we went.

Here is Maddie and Lacey inside the parranah tank.  Bailey and Kodie said it was too creepy to stay in to get their picture taken.

Some interactive plant roots for the girls to crawl in just like the fish do in the ocean.

Because we got to the Aquarium pretty early we were there for feeding time for many of the animals.  1st we saw the otters getting fed.  It was pretty uneventful as all the do is lay on their back and eat.

Then is was time for the seals and the sea lions to be fed.  We stopped at the viewing window where you can see under the water and above the water.  We got to see them swimming below and jumping and begging up above.

Here the keeper was tending to this sea lion with medicine and special food.

There was a keeper here who was feeding these sea lions and making them do tricks and here they were jumping out of the water and doing flips.  Really fun to watch.

As we were waiting for the fish to be fed we looked at the aquariums of jelly fish, and other sea creatures.

Here are some jelly fish.  I really thing they are hypnotists.  You could stand and watch them for hours on end.

These are some strawberry enenemies.  They're so cute and small.

This cool thing was a basket star.  Very interesting.

Here is a close up of a shrimp, they sure are ugly but man are they tasty to eat!

These were some of my favorites, they're called Nettles jelly fish.  Really cool to watch!!

Here are the ocean fish being fed.  It was interesting to watch how they fight for the food.  Interesting to watch!

This here is a king crab, a little scary really!

The girls LOVED the touch tank!  They got to touch and feel all the fun things you can find in tide pools.

Here is the jaw of a great white shark.  VERY cool!  Of course I couldn't get Kodie to join in but here is the rest of the family!

Here is Lacey posing on a cement seal.

Getting ready to leave we took the girls picture in front of the aquarium.  They were fighting each other where they wanted to sit.

Lacey honing in on mine and Johns picture.

Now on to the Marine Science center.

Getting some finger hugs from erchants

Here is a shell of a tortoise

The skull of a killer whale

Walrus skull which really resembles what they look like when they are alive.  A little crazy really!

After a long of touring the aquariums and stuff it was off to the beach again.

Lacey trying her had at making a sand castle

The girls were struggling in the drier sand and couldn't figure out why they couldn't get their sand to stick together.

John tried to help out by showing them how to pack the sand in the buckets.  

They just kept trying but no luck so onto the beach they went.

Wish all 4 of them would have been in this one! 

My favorite picture of all 221 that I took!

On Friday we thought we would venture south to Florence and see what it had to offer.  On our way we stopped at Cape Perpetua and checked out the visitor center.

The coast at Cape Perpetua

Bailey looking for whales at the visitor center

After that on to Strawberry Hill

We got to see Harbor Seals in their environment.  It was SO awesome!!

Aren't they SO cute!!

Lacey with a star fish

Taking pictures in front of the wall of muscles and barnacles

Then onto Hecita Head light house

Here is the rock I dubbed as crap rock, there is a flock of Common Mure that have taken up residency their and in turn have turned the rock white.  Nasty really!

Here is the coast line from the trail going to the lighthouse.

Here it is.  After a bit of a hike we made it to the lighthouse. You could have taken a tour but it was like 30 min out and we were ready for lunch so we passed.

Beautiful wild rose spotted off the trail, they smelled amazing too!

After lunch we headed on to Florence.

Here in the bay they harvest either clams or oysters, we never really found out but it was pretty cool.

The bridge in Florence.  They have such amazing bridges at the coast!

Then after looking in the shops and walking around we had to stop for ice cream.  Yummy!

On our way back from Florence we decided to stop back at Cape Perpetua we had to see if Devils Churn was doing anything great.  Unfortunately the water wasn't high enough.

So after our adventures for the day we had to go to our beach of course.  This time we did much better with our building skills!

The fun thing about this was we saw people checking them out as they were walking the beach.  The girls got a kick out of the fact that others were admiring their hard work.  Sadly the next morning they were gone, but we figured that would happen.

Bailey combing the beach

So for our last day at the beach we thought we would go North to Newport and check out the port area. 

This is the Yaquinta Head Light House.  It's run by the Dept. of Interior so they charge their own fee for the park so we decided not to go since it would just be a quick look see and then we'd be off.  We walked Agate beach and caught a glimpse of it through the fog.  Instead of spending time there we went to the port in Newport.  Here is just a little of what we saw.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the street we walked with all the fun shops, the fish processing companies, such a strange combination!

Here is the fish processing, fun to watch all the fish go down the conveyor belt

The sign above the tavern door-thought it was funny!

We got to see the sea lions!!  Newport has a spot where the sea lions migrate to every summer and they were there when we were which was cool!  These are the same ones that are at the sea lion caves that you have to pay to get down to, so we got double lucky!!  They were funny, barking and fighting with each other.  They drew a pretty large crowd!

The Marina in Newport.  So fun to look at all the different boats and to see them all together.

Had to take a picture of this hydrangea.  I LOVE these plants and they don't grow like this in Idaho.  You should have seen some of the plants I saw, they were like shrubs taking over the whole front of houses and businesses.  I think the salt in the air makes them the most vivid color of blue.  SO beautiful!

Seal Rock at high tide, all the tide pools are covered

Love the view of rocks and ocean

Our last night at the beach and the sun is shinning and it's probably the warmest it's been our whole stay.  After touring Newport we went back to camp and hung out at the beach the rest of the evening.

The girls wanted to swim in the ocean and so they did!

Love this of Kodie and Bailey walking together, so sweet!

Our last dinner at the beach.  We had tacos, took showers and went to bed so Sunday we could pack up and go back home.

SO glad we finally got to take a family vacation!!  After 13 years we kinda deserved it!  It was so nice having all the girls able to take care of themselves for the most part.  Not having to worry too much about them near the water or worry about them running off, no strollers or baby gear to hall.  It was such an enjoyable time!  I am excited for our next adventure!!