Darrin & Callie woke up early, so while the rest of us were still sleeping they took a walk around the Portland neighborhood. They got rained on and had to use umbrellas.
As it turns out, that was the only time the umbrellas got any use! We had gorgeous weather the whole trip. When I woke up, I turned on the TV and they were replaying the Opening Ceremonies. Turned it on just in time to see the end of the parade of nations. Made it seem like it had gone all all night long!
We packed up and headed for the coast. Stopped to see the Portland Temple, which was beautiful!
So much greenery it is hard to get a good shot.
We drove down through the Willamette Valley and then over to the coast, through dense, intensely green forest, arriving in Newport at about lunchtime. The hotel wasn’t ready for us to check in yet, so we went to the beach and had a (very wind-blown) picnic.
After lunch, we checked in to our hotel room and were so amazed at the view!
Then we headed to the
Oregon Coast Aquarium:
It was remarkable well-lit for taking pictures, and many of the fish tanks had gorgeous blown glass.
Brynn loved touching the animals. They had rays, starfish, anemones, abalone, and even a shark!
Everyone’s favorite part was the tunnel tanks.
They were built where there used to be a big tank that held Keiko the “killer whale”. Now there is a series of 3 connected tubes that go through the middle of tanks. One has fish found closer to shore, one is a bit farther off shore and has a fake shipwreck in it, and the third is deepwater with sharks and rays. There was even a window in the floor to see fish, though it was pretty scratched up and hard to see through.
Self portrait in an old metal scuba helmet you could put your head in:
We got to watch the otter get fed:
And they have marshlands with real wildlife, like this shorebird:
But they also have an aviary with captive birds, many of them were found injured and brought here for care. This one’s for you, mom:
The kids also liked playing on some cement statues of marine animails:
After the aquarium, we found a pizza place for dinner, walked around the touristy shops at the harbor, where we saw sea lions:
and then walked on the beach a bit and I took silhouette pictures of the kids:
before we went back to the hotel to watch the sun set out our window.
Then we watched Olympics and went to bed.
