"Spontaneous" Trip

I have been wanting to go to the coast again for a while. Who doesn't?? But we kept finding ourselves busy every weekend. Last Thursday, I couldn't fight it anymore. I told Brad we were going to the coast on Saturday. Don't make plans, it's going to happen. Giving myself two days to plan and get things ready for a small day trip to the coast is "spontaneous" for me :) 

Instead of going to the coastal town we normally go to, Florence, we decided to go to one a little further away called Newport. We've only been there once and that was for Gavin's second birthday and all we really did was go to the aquarium. Time for some exploring!

First up was the tide pools at Yaquina Head. I always loved going to the coast in California growing up and seeing all the cool stuff in the tide pools- anemone, sponges, crab, starfish, and all the other fun stuff I have no idea what their names are. I will say this- it was really cool, but a whole lot harder to navigate than the California coast. They had no sand. Just stones. At an incline. Made things interesting. The boys liked it, but James got nervous since we had let them know we needed to be careful where to walk/climb. So I think next time I'll just go to the Hatfield Marine Science Center and do their indoor tide pools where they boys can enjoy the creatures more. 

When we first came down to the beach, a guide was telling all visitors that we couldn't touch the starfish if we found any. Apparently they are getting sick and falling apart and they are trying to minimize whatever is happening from spreading. Right before we left, we saw a dead one, but made up for it by seeing about five alive ones. Better note to end on.

We then headed to a place called Aquarium Village. Online it seemed like a really cool place to visit. In person... meh. Fun pirate statues and other things to take pictures with and the boys loved it. The stores were... lacking and did not interest us at all. So we took some pics and moved on!

They were so excited to scramble about on this little ship

Aaaah, don't let it eat me! Jack nailed it

We then went over to Nye Beach. Heard great things about this beach and it did not disappoint. The boys generally only put their feet in the water so I didn't bother with swim stuff. So naturally they found a warm "pool" left over from high tide and got completely soaked and therefore they were put in their extra undies and hoodies. We be stylin'. We played in the sand and just had fun at the beach. After we changed clothes and baby powdered the heck out of the boys (seriously- miracle remover of sand) and went looking for some food. 

Beeline for the ocean!

Let's take some time to appreciate the two-year old in undies. Woot!

Ah, getting food at the coast. The hardest part is choosing where because there are so many places to try! We decided on a place called The Chowder Bowl. I had read some great reviews on their fish and chips (Brad's go-to coast meal) and bad and good reviews on their clam chowder in a bowl. I have only been eating clam chowder for the past three years. And I love it. So even though this was an iffy choice, someone needed to test it. So glad I did. It was pretty good! But I'm not picky (says the girl who just barely started eating clam chowder) :) We got the boys some fries and they then helped me eat my sourdough bowl. Also, they had the nicest staff. Definitely going there again. 

I'd say this trip got the ocean out of my system, but that's never going to happen. It was much needed and we loved it. Family day trips are honestly one of my favorite things. 

On a sidenote, pretty sure two major projects (well, i see them as major) are going to be finishing up at our house this week. And a certain big piece of furniture was delivered to our house on Tuesday. House is coming together!