A day at the Oregon Coast

With the day off for all of us, we decided to embark on a family adventure to the Oregon Coast. More specifically the Oregon Coast Aquarium, and some tide pools. Our first stop on our adventure was brunch at In-N-Out. We did brunch because it's just too insanely busy any other time of the day. This is a new location for In-N-Out this far north in Oregon, so it's a hot spot. People are coming from all over the Portland area and beyond I'm sure. When it first opened I heard people were waiting 5 hours in lines. So, we discovered it's best to hit it first thing in the morning when it first opens. We actually got a seat this time. Well, two seats actually. We couldn't all fit in a booth for 4, so we had to take 2. All the bigger seating areas were taken already. And, yes, we weren't the only ones there. The lobby was already full by the time we arrived at about 9:45. Crazy! It's a fun place to eat though. Pretty tasty too.

After eating brunch, we headed to the coast. It's about a 2-hour drive from there, so we were happy to get out and stretch our legs in the beautiful sunshine at Seal Rock to look at the tidepools. The sky was so blue. It was still chilly, but the sun really helped warm us up.

This is what I am assuming is seal rock. A giant rock that is to the right of Alex in the picture above. The picture below is a shot looking up from the bottom of it.

 We spotted some really neat sea life. I found this sea star.

After the tidepools, we made our way to the Aquarium. Our membership will be expiring next month, so we're trying to get the most out of it before it does. Of course, the older kids were rather grumbly with the "been there, done that" attitude, but we made them do it anyway. This kid though, he was super excited about it all still. He maybe grumbled once that the beginning.

This eel was pretty big!

This is a bird! It was swimming down below the water super fast, and looked all shiny because of the air bubbles on its feathers.

Another of the birds. A Tufted Puffin. The birds were fun to watch today.

Sharks are awesome!

So are seahorses. I really enjoy watching creatures of all kinds. I'm so thankful for places like the Aquarium where we can go and observe and learn new things about the creatures in this world. 

If you are in the US I hope you had a nice President's Day, or Washington's Birthday, or whatever you call it! For all my other friends, I hope your Monday was good!