Oregon Trip - Part 2

One observation about the coast - brr cold!!!  I should have brought more pants!

Despite the chilly wetness we still made sure to work on sand castles.  We all enjoyed this:

Our finished project!

This day we went to the Rogue brewery for lunch.  Jason and I liked it, but this is what Ruby thought of the smell of a brewery:

Jason and I each got a little tray to sample all sorts of different beers:

And the kids loved calamari!  Yes, it is fried, so it's not too surprising, but some of them were shaped like whole, complete mini octopuses and they would eat it!

This afternoon we took a whale-watching tour on this big white boat here:

Poor Ruby did not get a nap that day.  It was kind of chilly out so we went inside.  Her lifevest propped her up so she didn't fall over, and with the gentle rocking of the boat...she was out in no time!  It was precious.

Eventually she flopped over but continued to sleep!

Both kids got to steer. I will say, one thing about this ship....I could not be a fisherman!  I did not at all enjoy getting out of the gentle waves of the bay out into the ocean.  That was some serious jostling!  No thank you!  I was happy to get back to the bay.  We did not see any whales but it was still great.

We threw out some crab pots to catch crabs, and the tour guide told us all about them.

We went to a park we happened to see on our way back to the hotel.  Jason whipped poor Ruby around on this thing so fast - you should have seen her face!  Afterwards she was mad at him.  Poor Ruby!

Our hotel room in Newport:

The next morning we went to this really cool place called Devil's Punchbowl.  When tide is down it's like this, and you can walk around in the bottom:

This is what it looks like from the top.  When tide comes in, this fills with water and swirls!  We got out of there before the water was too high but it changes fast!

This afternoon we headed to Tillamook for a tour of the cheese factory.  Ruby got really good at napping in the car.  Notice Dougie:

No one would stand with Jason for a picture, so here he is all by himself at Tillamook:

That night, what did we have for dinner?  More clam chowder, of course!!  Jason and I also had the most amazing prawns here...they called them fire crackers.  This was in a small town near Manzanita, where we stayed after Newport.  It's near Canon Beach but that place is too expensive so we were in a "suburb".

Our hotel in Manzanita.  I'm starting to think I'm snobby.  I just can't stomach so-so hotels.  I get grossed out and can't get past it.  This place wasn't that bad, but for some reason it gave me the willies.  I'm sure Jason will laugh when he reads this!  I'll get over it:

Views of the coast right outside our hotel:

We had fun playing on this beach too.  More pictures to follow!