Trip to Newport

On Veteran's Day we made a trip over to the Coast. It was a gorgeous day over there!! We could not have picked a better day. It was sunny, warm and there was NO WIND. It was just awesome.

The kids were begging to play on the beach first, so that's where we headed when we got there. They found a HUGE sea kelp that had washed a shore. They were running around with it and decided to name it "Bob". We even brought him home with us and Grandpa Tex is going to take him home...funny, I know. It looks like a big bull whip or something along those lines. I think it will end up hanging in the cook shed at Nonna and Pe-Paw's.

The pictures below were taken on the beach at the end of the day. It was raining just a bit, bit it was still just gorgeous out!

We also went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. It is such a neat place. It use to be home to Keiko, the whale. The kids' favorite section of this place is "Passages of the Deep". It is really impressive. You walk through Orford Reef, Halibut Flats and Open Sea. There are tunnels that are submerged in the water...it's all around you and and all the fish, sharks, reefs, kelp forests sway and swim above and below the tunnels. Pretty amazing. The kids were in awe...
Dad was admitted in free of charge because it was Veteran's Day- I thought that was really COOL!

After we drug the kids away from the tunnels, we had lots of other cool things to see and do!

The Sea Lions even gave Dad a "proper" salute! I wasn't able to get a picture of it, but it was really special.

Our next stop was the Hatfield Marine Science Center. It was full of really cool experiments, science info and exhibits. We didn't have a lot of time there because it closed at 4:00 and we got there at about 3:30. It was worth the stop in, very neat info!

We spent the rest of our time doing some sight seeing, shopping and eating Mo's clam chowder, Dad's favorite. Was a great trip!

I think I may have found the perfect birthday gift for Mac while we were there...you can purchase tickets for kids to have over-night sleepovers in the tunnels where the fish and sharks swim. It looks pretty neat and would be something he would really enjoy! I am contemplating it at this point. Last year we did The Reptile Man, which totally rocked and I have been trying to figure out how to "top that"...I may have just found it!