During our second day in Newport (Aug 23), we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium and the lighthouses.
The Aquarium was really fun. It is one of Oregon's main attractions. We started our tour of the Aquarium outside were we saw sea lions and seals, sea otters, and many different sea birds. We even saw a giant octopus. The kids loved the sea lions and we watched them swim around their tank for quite a while.
Then we went inside to the Shark Encounter tanks:
These tanks were so cool. Basically we walked through this glass tube and we were actually inside the shark tanks and fish tanks. We could see the sharks and fish swimming above us, to the sides of us, and even below us! Emily and Colby liked to lay on the floor and watch the fish swim under us. Both of them would run up to the glass and point to the fish as they swam around and yell at us to "Look at that one! That is cool!" They loved it.
After coming out of the Shark Encounter tanks, we went into the Shark gift shop where we found this cool old scuba diver helmet and Russell and Emily had to try it on. Then we went inside the mouth of Jaws the great white shark. That mouth was HUGE! No wonder they can swallow people whole!
Then we when into the different rooms of the Aquarium that had all of the tanks of creatures. We saw jellyfish, crabs, starfish, shrimp, and a bunch of other fish and sea creatures. There was even a little pool of creatures like starfish, urchins, sea cucumbers, and anemones that we could touch and pet. It was so interesting to touch all of them. Some were slimy, others rough, and most of them were squishy. Emily loved touching the starfish
Also in the Aquarium there was a little play area for the kids called "The Sea & Me." Here Colby and Emily got to drive a ship and catch big fish off the side of a boat. They also got to hide in a beaver hut. They loved this part of the Aquarium; they wanted to stay and play for a long time.
After seeing everything in the Aquarium, we decided to drive down Hwy 101 down the coast and see as many lighthouses as we could.
OK this isn't a light house but this is the Newport Bay Bridge. It runs 6/10 of a mile long over the ocean and the Newport Bay. We drove over this bridge a few times a day to get to our hotel and to all of the sites.
The first Lighthouse we went to was the Yaquina Head Lighthouse:
This is still an active lighthouse and the light is on all of the time. We got to take a tour of this lighthouse along with about 50 other people. They only let a few people in at a time so we had to wait outside in the cold wind. Because the lighthouse set on a hill right above the ocean it was really windy and cold. Finally we were able to go in.
Inside we climbed clear to the top of the light house to see the light at the top. As you can see there were a lot of steep stair to climb. They wouldn't let us take Emily or Colby up because they were too small so Russell and I had to go one at a time. Inside we learned that the light from the lighthouses shown for 20 miles so lighthouses were placed every 40 miles along the coast. That is something I didn't know.
As we were walking to the Yaquina Head lighthouse, we looked down at the ocean and saw this sea lion chilling on the rock. We were excited to see a some more of the natural wildlife of the coast.
The next lighthouse we drove to was the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. This is an older lighthouse and isn't in operation anymore. The Yaquina Head Lighthouse took it's place. This lighthouse is right by the Newport Bay and the Newport Bay Bridge.
We decided we had better get heading down the coast if we were going to make it to our next destination, Medford, OR, before it got too late. As we drove down Hwy 101 we could see the ocean out our right window and the forests and trees out our left window. The road was fun to drive but I kept wanting to look out the window at the ocean instead of keeping my eyes on the winding road. At some points there were sheer drop offs into the ocean; it was awesome. As I was driving, I noticed a house on the left side of the road and the owners were setting out on their porch gazing over the ocean and they had the lush forest in their backyard. I thought man that must be the life!
The next Lighthouse we saw was the Heceta Head Lighthouse. We couldn't get close enough to take a picture of it, we just saw it from the road. It was weird looking though because it was like a black dome instead of the typical lighthouse look.
The last lighthouse we saw was the Umpqua River Lighthouse. This is an active lighthouse ran by the Coast Guard. There were Coast Guard housing all around this lighthouse.
We continued on our drive down the Coast until we reached Coos Bay. This is definitely a logging town. There were logs and logging ships and trucks everywhere. We stopped here for dinner at Abby's Pizza. It was really good. Then we continued across Oregon to Medford where we stayed for the night.
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