Newport Oregon, Part 1

After the family reunion, we started our drive down the coast. Our first stop was a town called Newport. Well, we stopped to look at a couple things along the way as well. When we arrived in Newport it was cold and foggy, but we wanted to see a famous lighthouse called Yaquina Head Light House. We had to laugh because a lot of the State Parks would say "Fee" on the sign and it was always so much cheaper than expected. Like Ecola Park that I wrote about last time was a whopping $3.00. So when we drove up we weren't surprised to pay only $7.00 for a 3 day pass.

Anyhow it was really foggy, so the pics weren't that great. There was a tide pool, but the tide was in. I will post more on that next. After we found a where our hotel was, we wen to the Newport Harbor area. Thanks to a great tip from Carla Price, we were on the lookout for sea lions. We were walking along and heard loud barking and found them. It was amazing. There was a little dock down below and there were a bunch of Sea Lions lazing around. The kids were thrilled!! We stood there for a long time just looking and laughing.

They are really quite a comical animal. Jordan said they looked like a bunch of potatoes. I think they look like slugs. They lay all over each other and bark and bark. The boys loved it. They are all males-the females stay in the water-typical:) We did see some on rocks a little further out and some jumping in and out of the water.

There was a sad one with an injury-he swam through some wire or something and it is stuck around his neck. I forget who keeps track of them, but was a sign saying that they couldn't get him still enough to get it off and he could get hurt in the process. Makes me feel sad to see all the litter in the ocean. If only people could just find a trash can!! Most of the sea lions had numbers on them so the scientists could study their movement.

This is one of the little stops we made before getting to Newport. This is the Cape Meares Lighthouse. I walked down a short path to see it because the kids were all asleep in the car. It was a gorgeous walk. I do have to say that the lighthouses in Oregon were a little boring compared to the ones we have seen on the East Coast. They were all short and white. The ones in the Outer Banks are really tall, have strips or are painted really cool. But they are always fun to see, nonetheless.

This particular light house had a red light inside, which none of the others had. It was cool because it was really right out on the cliff.
Another view of our funny friends.