Chop Chop Billy Goat

After we left Tillamook, we headed down the coast to Newport, Oregon. We had a very busy week there. We went to the Hatfield Marine Science Center, which had lots of cool hands-on exhibits. At one, I made a Lego house that survived a mini tsunami. We also spent a lot of time looking at the different types of fish, and feeling anemones in the touch tank.

The beach at our campground was awesome. Giant waves tossed strange and beautiful things up onto the huge sand beach. There were rocks with holes in them, small rounded rocks, and smooth worn down shells. We also saw a huge log that looked like a dog from the distance. The beach ended at a long jetty that protected the bay in front of Newport. We played in the sand dunes that lined the beach.

We also went to Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area. (Yes, that is the official name!) We climbed to the top of Yaquina Head Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in Oregon. It was only 93 feet tall though. After climbing the lighthouse, we headed to the rock beach below it. We explored the tide pools, feeling giant green anemones, purple urchins, and strange sea stars. On the small rock islands just off shore, thousands of seals lay in the sun to warm up.

While we were at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, we met someone who told us about a place in town where there were a few floating docks for sea lions to rest on. The next day, we went to the sea lion docks. Eight or so small square docks were tied together next to a pier that we watched from. The docks were covered with sea lions barking their heads off. They fought for every inch of space on the docks, but nobody even tried to get on the dock that was almost empty (only two sea lions on it!). I really don’t get how the dock space privileges work with sea lions. Sea lions were swimming in the water, trying to climb onto docks with seven sea lions already on them. It was just plain old insane.