Thursday, May 18, 2006

Got up at 6:15 a.m. and sat outside in my blanket. Waves aren't quite as big as yesterday. We all got cleaned up, dressed and down to breakfast. We didn't take time to walk this morning. It was already 9:00 a.m. by the time we drove north to Newport. Another beautiful day!

We stopped at Seal Rock State Park on 101. This is a place that seals sometimes gather with their babies. It's also a rookery for many birds. Today there are no seals, but lots of birds. Becky went down on the beach first to check out the tidal pools. This was something she had been planning on and I didn't know anything at all what to expect. She called me down and we found the coolest things - sea anenome's, starfish - got some great pictures. Then we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium where we could touch all the things we had just seen. The sea anenome's tentacles, or whatever you call them, feel sticky. Some of the starfish are hard as a rock and some (I think the sun starfish) feel very squishy. The sea urchins feel like toothpicks and when you stick a finger in the side of them their spines would sort of "hug" you to see if you were good enough to eat.

We watched them feed the sea lions and the otters. They were so cute. We learned that they crack the clams for the otters here. When the otters lay on their back to crack clams they have to have stones to do that. When the otters have stones they end up breaking the glass windows around their swimming area. I'm pretty sure this one's name is Alex so I had to get his picture for my grandson. We ate lunch here and I bought Emerson a T-shirt (onesie) here.

Then we went to the old Harbor District in Newport. We walked around, going in different shops, looking at all the murals they had painted everywhere. We ate at Port Dock One right on the harbor on a deck looking over some big sea lions that just lay around and bark all day long. Apparently just the males hang around the harbor. The month of July they go to southern California where the girls are! Regular as a clock, on August 1st they are back in the harbor. The natives call them the "Deadbeat Dads." I had scullmunion, which is clam chowder with shrimp, for the first time. It was pretty good.

We drove over to the Aquina Bay Lighthouse and took some pictures. We came home around 6:30 p.m. and simply crashed. No walking, no decent supper - just tv, popcorn, cheese, crackers, beer and/or soda.