Day # 20 - Newport, OR

Everyone was a little cranky this morning, but we headed out for the Oregon Coast Aquarium anyway. The aquarium is on the small side, but they have some very nice exhibits there. There are outdoor enclosures that are home to sea otters (one of my favorite animals!), seals and sea lions and a giant Pacific Octopus. There are many volunteers on hand to discuss the animals and answer questions. I am a big fan of interesting (but useless to the average American) information on animals. In college I took a few classes at the zoo as electives and I can still amuse and astound (read bore) my family with lots of really neat things I learned! We arrived in time to see the otters get fed. I will take this opportunity to share my never ending supply of useless information with you! Otters have a really high metabolism so they must eat 15 to 20% of their body weight daily. The average otter weighs 65 pounds so they eat 15 or more pounds of fresh seafood a day. Those little guys were fun to watch. They practically inhaled that food and we thought they looked pretty cute doing it.

Next, we spent some time watching the seals and sea lions. They had an underwater viewing area and the kids loved feeling like they were up close and personal with the sea life. We got a kick out of watching their underwater antics. The Oregon Coast Aquarium’s big claim to fame was they had built a large outdoor viewing area to house the killer whale they used in the Free Willy movies before they released it back into the wild. They have since turned that exhibit into a very neat display that houses 3 separate ocean zones that you view by walking through huge acrylic tunnels. I am always in awe of how graceful the sharks look gliding through the water. I am also very thankful we are separated by several inches of glass!

The exhibit we spent the most time in was a very comprehensive display of the local tide pools. They had a large touch pool where you could touch the sea stars and anemones. The coolest thing we learned was that a starfish’s stomach actually comes outside of its body to digest the clam or oyster it has pried open for its dinner. Sarah thought that was really awesome in a completely gross way. I really think the teenaged male volunteer got a kick out of trying to gross people out by telling them that! Both Sarah and Abby enjoyed touching the animals in the touch pool. AJ just enjoyed splashing around. We also took the time to check out the sea birds. I ventured in despite my dislike of birds (one too many Hitchcock movies). The volunteer there was very knowledgeable and I actually enjoyed seeing the birds dive into the water for their dinner. After a trip to the gift shop for yet another smash penny for our collections, we headed back to the camper for a little rest.

After dinner, we decided to go and explore some tide pools on our own. Oregon is famous for their tide pools. They are easily accessible in many places along the coast and the National Park Service puts out a map with the best locations for viewing along with rating their degree of difficulty for getting to them. One of the areas close to our campground was at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. There is a day use fee at many of Oregon’s state run parks, but because we had purchased the America the Beautiful annual National Parks Pass, we got in free! I love free! Anyway, we were not able to access a large portion of the beach because a small harbor seal had hauled himself out on the rocks for a rest from the very large waves the ocean was kicking up. The beach here is what is called a cobblestone beach. The cobblestone beach is really neat to look at – it is covered with hundreds of thousands of cobblestones that have been weathered smooth and round by the ocean over time. As beautiful as they are to look out, walking over them is like trying to walk on large marbles. We were able to carefully pick our way down the steeper section of the cobblestone beach to access the awesome tide pools. I just can’t begin to describe the many different examples of marine life that are here in these pools. The sea stars are not only huge, but they are brightly colored as well. They are deep reds and purples and bright orange. The anemone are bright green. There are clams and oysters and barnacles and red sea coral. It seems like everywhere you look you see something new. Sarah and Abby were very excited and kept yelling for us to look at their latest discoveries. I think it was even more special to them because they had spent so much time in the tide pool display at the aquarium this morning and now they were getting to see one first hand in the wild. Because the sea was so fierce even at low tide, about half a dozen more seals had hauled out on the rocks about 100 yards from us. You just don’t get that kind of sea life on the east coast beaches! Tide pools (Along with many other things in life) present an interesting challenge when you are trying to wrangle an active, inquisitive 2 year old boy!

We would love to show you the great photos we took, but as Tony had both the camera and AJ, we didn’t get any! As the sun was beginning to set, we decided to call it a night and to try to make our way back up the steep slope to our car. Everyone started back up the cobblestones carefully, but I was the one who managed to lose my balance and fall (in very graceful fashion I might add – Not!). My husband, mind you carried AJ in one arm and held Abby with his other hand, and they all made it fine. Fortunately, nothing was hurt but my pride. We headed back to the camper exhausted from our busy day!