Fall at the Park

I know it's a little late for fall pictures, but we really did have a lovely fall.

And we always enjoy a trip to the park, regardless of the season.

Camping - Devil's Churn

On our last day of our great camping trip, we packed everything up and headed over to Coos Bay to see what we could see.  We didn't find much, but we probably just didn't know where to look.  We did find this huge mound of oyster shells:

We walked along the boardwalk a bit.  The kids had fun looking at all the boats.

Then we made our way back up North.  Bye-bye, Sunset Bay!  We had a blast!  Hope to see you again some day! 

On our way up the coast we spotted a nice little detour: Devil's Churn.  Of course we had to stop and check it out!  It was awesome!  It's this narrow chasm that the ocean flows into.  We had a lot of fun watching the waves crash against the rock.

We love surprise stops that have great rewards.  We look back fondly on this camping trip.  It's definitely been a favorite of ours.  We couldn't have asked for a better time.

Camping - Shore Acres and Cape Arago

Yes, this is a continuation of our camping trip, but we just had such a great time, I can't get all that in one post! 

Our second day of camping was spent exploring Shore Acres State Park and Cape Arago. 

Shore Acres once was a grand estate owned by a lumber baron.  His mansion once stood about where I was standing to take the picture above.  Sadly, due to a fire, the mansion is no longer there. 

But not to worry.  There is definitely plenty to look at.  Besides the great ocean views (and sometimes whale sightings), there is a beautiful botanical garden.  They have plants from all around the world and claim to have something in bloom just about everyday of the year.  It was very fun to explore this beautiful place.  

Libby is, as we say it, "geeking out" because she is in the middle of flower heaven, and this girls loves flowers.

Shore Acres was one of our favorite things about our camping trip.  It's definitely worth the stop if you are ever in the area.  We wish we could have been there during the holidays.  Apparently, they light up the gardens with Christmas lights!  Wouldn't that be fun?

Here are a couple pictures of the Cape Arago Light.

After visiting Shore Acres we continued down the Cape Arago Highway.  There is this great spot toward the end of the cape, an overlook, where you can see a crazy amount of sea lions hanging out on Simpson Reef!  They were so noisy!  And kind of smelly.

It was so fun to sea all these sea lions.  We were amazed!

What a beautiful and amazing place!  We had such a great time and were so glad we were able to go.

Camping - Sunset Bay State Park

As I mentioned in the previous post, we stayed near Newport for the first night of our camping trip to avoid the crazy wind and rain.  The rest of our camping trip, however, was just as beautiful as can  be.  After visiting the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse we ventured south toward Coos Bay.  Our actual destination was Sunset Bay State Park.  It was such a great little spot to camp and play at the beach.

You can see that this is a small bay.  Because of the small inlet, the waves were pretty mellow for ocean waves.  It was just right for the kids to play in.  They had such a blast.  And, as you can see, we had great weather.  Perfectly sunny and just the right temperature - hot enough to warm you up after playing in the cold water, but not so hot to make you uncomfortable if you're just hanging out on the beach.

This was the best camping trip we've been on.  It was so fun.  The beach was perfect.  I'm not sure how often we will get back to Sunset Bay, it's so far from us, but we certainly would love going back some day.

Camping - Newport

This summer we went on our longest camping trip to date - three nights!  We'd certainly love to make it longer, but we'll take what we can get.  For this trip, we headed to the coast.  We wanted to make our way down to Coos Bay.  As our trip drew near, we kept a close eye on the weather and were sad to find out that the first night of our trip was supposed to be super rainy and windy!  We know that's no fun in a tent, so we searched for any available yurt along the coast.  Reservations for these state park yurts and cabins fill up quickly.  The closest one I could find to our destination was just north of Newport - over two and a half hours away.  Oh, well, we can have fun wherever we are.  

This is Beverly Beach, where our yurt was located.

We always enjoy a trip into Newport.  We love to go to the docks and watch the sea lions.  This time though we were delighted to see our very first jelly fish swimming along in the water!  It was so fun to see it swish around.

The kids had so much fun spending the night in the yurt.  Boy! Were we glad that we made that decision!  It rained and poured and the wind was SO LOUD!  I was so glad we weren't in a tent for all that.  

The next morning was bright and sunny.  We made our way to the lighthouse there in Newport called the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

We were able to take a tour of this lighthouse and even climb to the top of it.  Lincoln and I didn't much care for the winding, climbing, narrow staircase so we opted out.  I'm actually glad I did though because I was able to see Ethan and each kid as they peered out of the lighthouse from the very top.  I think this is Maria you can see waving from up there.

You know, I was thinking, some people might think I missed out by not climbing to the top of that lighthouse and seeing the view of the coast and ocean from way up there.  But to me, it's all about perspective.  For some people, the top of the lighthouse is the perfect perspective, adventurous and vast.  But for me, the perfect perspective was looking up from below.  Seeing each of my kids faces as they spotted me from on high and excitedly waved to me, that is the perfect spot for me.  I loved it.  It excited me more than the alternative ever could have.