OUR OREGON TRIP HIGHLIGHTS......

OK, to start with, these pictures will not be in any particular order. I took around 400 photos and so I selected a few to let you know some of the things we did.
We left on Saturday morning the 15th and went to Astoria. My brother Rick and his awesome family live there and we wanted to spend Saturday and part of Sunday with them before driving on down the coast to Depoe Bay. We got to Astoria around 3:30 Pacific time. We immediately went to the Bowpicker for a wonderful lunch of fish and chips. We then rode the trolley that goes up and down the waterfront. We then went to Rick and Wendy's for a visit before going to a play called "Shanghaied in Astoria". It was so much fun. A slap stick comedy . That evening we drove to Seaside and spent the night at the Seaside Resort and then went to church with them in Astoria on Sunday.
After church we went to their home and they fed us a delicious roast beef dinner. We went and saw their new home after dinner. (They will be moving into it in a couple of weeks.) We also checked out a few of the sites in Astoria and then left to drive to Depoe Bay.
We drove down to Newport one day and went to the "Sea Lion Caves". You take an elevator down to the cave, however the lions were out on a rock sun bathing instead of being in the cave.
If you make this picture bigger, you can see the lions on the rock. They blend in real well.

This is the cave. We did see a couple swimming in the water but the rest were outdoors.

We went to a couple of lighthouses. For some reason, the flies were horendous at this paticular one so we didn't stay long. The view was incredible though!

Here we are aboard "The Morning Star." We were right up front on the bow...."I'M THE QUEEN OF THE WORLD"....lol Actually I was scared to death. I took a couple of dramamine so I wouldn't get sick. I've never been on a boat on the ocean other than a ferry. I did fine and it was so much fun I would have liked to go again. We went out to look for Whales. We did see a couple .....but........

we also could see whales from off the deck of our condo unit, (which by the way was beautiful) Here we all are watching the whales one evening. We saw them nearly every day! They were Gray Whales.

We saw beautiful sunsets!

There were several bouys out in the ocean and when we went out in the boat I took a picture of sea lions sunning themselves on the bouy! The boat was a rockin, hense the blurry picture! You couldn't see them from the coast because the bouy was out too far.

This is a picture of Depoe Bay (the bay is on the other side of the bridge) as we were coming in off the ocean after our boat ride.

We went swimming 2 times at the condo. Unfortunately, I took the picture or you'd all been able to see a whale! LOL

We went into Newport to the "Under the Sea Gardens" and watched all kinds of sea creatures as well as a diver that went under and would pick up animals (he could catch) and bring them to the window so we could see them being handled. (eels, crabs, annomes, etc) We were hoping to see an Octopus but the onery thing wouldn't come out. Outside on the docks we found MORE sea lions. The fishermen don't like them (especially down near Astoria) because they are mean, and they eat all the fish, especially the salmon and they take over the docks!

We went to an aquarium in Newport. This was a tank that went overhead as well as had a couple of glass floors. It had several fish plus sharks!

We explored several beaches. I was very disappointed not to find any sand dollars this year.
One lady who owned a store in Depoe Bay said that this is a bad year for finding shells and rocks etc. Too much sand being washed ashore this year........interesting!

This was the view from our condo! It was incredible! It was awesome sleeping at night and hearing the waves crash on the rocks! I loved it! It was often foggy but usually cleared off nicely!

The front of the resort. We were on the 2nd floor. It was perfect!

These are the "BEST FISH AND CHIPS" (in Tony and my estimation) They are from the Bowpicker in Astoria! They are made from tuna. We love them!

Dad prefers cod.

This is Mom and Dad in fron of the column in Astoria. There is a circular staircase inside (166 plus stairs straight up) and we all walked up! The view from on top is spectucular and well worth the exhausting trip)

This is one of the actors at the play we went to in Astoria. He played a Norweigen named Ano!

It was a blast!

This was an actress in the play.......she was a H. O. O. K. E. R. !!!

It was all in fun and I asked her if I could take a picture of her so she leans on in to Tony and planted a kiss on his cheek! She had a cute little French accent. Tony was as red as her outfit! PRETTY FUNNY!

This is a picture of one of the structures at Tapiola Park. My sister in law Wendy designed the park and raised a ton of money for the construction! This is a miniature of the Flavel House. Captain Flavel was a river pilot and his home is a museum now.

This is a picture of us in Rick and Wendy's current back yard. It overlooks the mouth of the Columbia River and the ocean. The bridge in the background connects Oregon and Washington States and is 4 miles long!

The day before we left to come home was very windy and the ocean waves were incredibly high. This paticular picture is called a blow hole. There are several spots on the rocks that have holes in them and when the waves come up the water shoots out of the holes.

This was just a sampling of what we did! It was a wonderful trip. I always enjoy the coast and all it beauties and wonder!