The Oregon Coast

Of course we enjoyed time on the coast, as well. It was too chilly to have the typical beach experience, but we still had our fun. 

 The first time David went to the beach, he fell over in the water and must have felt threatened by the sea--because when we went back, he was more than a little afraid of those waves. I wanted to encourage him to get back on the horse, so to speak, so we slowly worked him back into walking in the water.

At first it took both of my hands holding his to coax David towards the water.

 He finally got close enough to let the water get his feet wet.

 Eventually he was comfortable with me holding just one hand.

 After a while, Daddy joined the fun--and eventually we were running out to the waves to meet them.

 As we walked along, we found a number of starfish that had washed ashore.

 Most of the starfish were this deep purple color. We brought one back to the house for a souvenier, and the locals taught us to boil it in salt water for 15 minutes to keep it from stinking while it dried out. After it was boiled, the starfish turned a bright orange--which is probably why all the dried out starfish for decoration are orange, not purple.

 The treasures were definitely exciting to find.

We also got to go to some tide pools while we were along the coast. I have always wanted to see tide pools--so this outing was a real treat! The tide pools are the little pockets of water between the rocks that stay with a little water while the ocean tide recedes. At high tide, they are completely covered with sea water and at low tide, we could see some of the secrets of the sea.

 Dear Moc, the picture below is a colony of star fish. Sorry for the glare, but we were on slippery rocks covered in seaweed and I didn't want to take my life into my hands by getting in a different position to get rid of that glare. Love, Min.

 Can you see the purple sea anenomes?

 And here is a colony of mussels that are stuck to a rock.

We went to the lighthouse--twice--to tour it.

The first time it was closed and the second time we learned that no one under 42 inches could tour it.

David was quite broken hearted! He was really looking forward to going inside the light house.

Since that day, David has mentioned a few times the day when he'll be "bigger" or "big to go inside the lighthouse." That boy has a memory!

Oh, how we loved our trip to Oregon! We're glad that Aaron and Kristina got married, and that they got married in such a lovely place to visit.