July 31, 2012: Day 6, Sea Lion Caves

 Sea Lion Caves

  

Swimming in the pool

Owls came to visit us in camp.

July 30, 2012: Day 5, Oregon Coast Aquarium

Japan Tsunami Dock, Agate Beach, Newport, OR

Whale Spouts!!!

Agate Beach 

Beautiful sunset at the South Jetty Beach.

Journal
What a day!  It’s super late but I want to get the basics down and elaborate more in the morning.  After a breakfast of Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Buttersworth (they get along famously) we were off to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  The girls had a great time and learned a lot.  We got to see demonstrations in the sea otter exhibit as well as the aviary.  There were sea lions, seals, a giant octopus, even a cool tunnel fish display.  There were displays for the different parts of the ocean, coastal, tide pools, and open ocean.  We even got to see sea horses and touch sting rays.
After the aquarium we went to Agate Beach State Park and the girls played while we walked to the Japanese tsunami dock.  We got to see them building a road onto the beach to get it moved.  What an amazing thought that this piece floated all this way.
On our drive back to camp I saw a whale spout in the ocean.  When I pulled over and we watched, there were LOTS of spouts!  I even got a picture of a whale tail and back!
We got back to camp just in time to watch the sunset and start some laundry.  Now I’m exhausted!  Goodnight!

July 29, 2012: Day 4, Oregon State Parks

 Cape Arago State Park

Tide pools

 Look at these rocks with all these crazy things going on!

 

The bridge that we think looks like the troll's bridge in Three Billy Goats Gruff

Shore Acres State Park 

Look at those HUGE leaves!

Sunset Bay State Park

Journal
After a fun day we are back to camp and all tucked in.  We had a great time visiting some of the beautiful state parks along the southern coast.  We started at Cape Arago and had a picnic lunch before walking down to the water.  We could hear the sea lions barking from the picnic area!  We hiked down to the shore and enjoyed looking at the tide pool shore.  We saw sea anemones, crabs, hermit crabs, and snails.  There were some amazing rock formations that I don’t understand what was happening.  I need to find a book about it!  Next was Shore Acres State Park.  This area was beautiful with a hiking trail along the cliff edge and a huge garden area.  The dahlias aren’t blooming yet but everything else was amazing.  Next was Sunset Bay State Park.  We let the kids play on the sandy beach for quite a while it was interesting to see the land change as the tide came in.  There was a small sandy island just off the shore when we got there, but by the time we left you couldn’t tell where it was anymore.  After the beach we stopped for souvenirs and a fish dinner.  We ate at the High Tide Café, and it was delicious.
Tomorrow we are scheduled to go to the aquarium, Otter Crest and Agate Beach.  I think it will be a lot of fun.  We have a few more days at this camp and I can’t wait to hang out a bit and swim and relax.

July 8, 2012: Day 4, Tongue Point and Olympic National Park Visitor Center

We were nearly the only people visiting Tongue Point Marine Sanctuary this morning.  We had the tide pool areas to ourselves!

       

It was foggy, but still really neat to see.

  

At the Salt Creek Recreation area there was a fun playground and the girls played for a while.  On our way out of the area we saw this family of deer.

 

At the Olympic National Park Visitor Center we got to check out some really neat exhibits and watch  a movie about the area. 

  

We stopped at the Dream Playground on our way through town, it was so much fun.  There were castles, and tree forts, and a lighthouse!

  

Back at camp we started taking things down to get ready to move camps tomorrow.

 

Selena is so creative, she made a charcoal pencil out of a twig and drew this picture!

 

Before bed we made these really cute jellyfish crafts.

Journal
1101pm
Whew!  I just finished getting ready for bed, I’m awfully tired so I don’t know how much I’ll get down.  We started today out with a relaxing morning with Spam and eggs for breakfast and then the first showers of the trip!  Once we were on the road, we went to Salt Creek Recreation Area and Tongue Point Marine Sanctuary.  We got to walk out on the rocky tidepools at access 2 (?) as well as the main entrance (#2? was better).  We saw tons of muscles, sea anemone, sea urchin shells, two sea stars, crabs, chitons, kelp and more.  It was lots of fun to walk out there.  On our way back through Port Angeles, we stopped at the Olympic National Park visitor center.  We enjoyed the exhibits as well as the kids discovery room.  We got to watch a video about the many parts that make up the park.  We decided that we would enjoy eating fish since we are in a “port” town.  It was fairly difficult to find a fish place.  We drove all over the place.  We even ended up at the end of Ediz Spit.  On our drive through town we spotted a really neat park.   It has the same kinds of toys as the park in Wentachee.  It was loads of fun.
We did find a fish place, but we were not impressed.  We have better seafood at home than this place.  This evening, we prepared camp for leaving tomorrow.  The girls played outside and found a cool clearing to play in.  We even had time to make a jellyfish craft and go on a flashlight hike to the playground before bed.  It was a really fun day and we will be sad to leave our really cool campsite.