In July, we were able to visit Justun's Uncle Dave and Aunt Nancy in Newport for 9 days. It was so nice to see them and I immediately fell in LOVE with Newport. I seriously could live there, I wish I could live there. We drove because plane tickets were just too expensive, and I have to say the girls did SOOO good being in the car for 16 hours. Its hard as an adult to sit in the car for that long, let alone be a kid and sit that long. Our DVD player, their iPods, coloring books and watching for different state license plates kept us sane. We also got a nice surprise on Saturday morning when Jessica showed up on the front porch, driving all night from LA. It was awesome. Now the pics:
OK, so literally around the corner from Dave & Nancy's house is the Historic Bayfront. You walk out onto the boardwalk and this is what you see. In the second picture, I ran along the Bay road in front of those houses RIGHT along the ocean. I can't even begin to explain how beautiful it was and the air was so clean and crisp. I even picked out a house on my run that I pretend will be mine if we lived there.
So, here are a few of my favorite things along the Bayfront.
The smell of fish and salt in the air was so refreshing for me.
I LOVED this candy shoppe, they had all kinds of old-fashioned
candy that brought me back to when I was a kid. Justun had to
keep me under control.
This is me before my first fishing trip, I am not gonna lie, I got sick.
I was fine for awhile and then I started rocking right along with the boat.
I am proud to say I didn't blow chunks, but I would have if I didn't lay down.
It was FREEZING out on the ocean too, my muscles were sore the next day from shivering so hard. And surprise, surprise no fish for me. To be honest I didn't care...
Abby really wanted to see the lighthouse, and so Yaquina Bay Lighthouse here we come. We climbed all the stairs to the top (I can't remember how many stairs, but I'm sure Abby could tell you, and when it was built and anything else you would like to know about it, she is an expert now) and then made our way down to the tide pools below. The beach below had these really cool round rocks that were hard to walk on, almost like big ball bearings. It was actually really cool.
At the tide pools, we saw all colors of starfish, lots of sea urchin, mussels all over the rocks, sea slugs, hermit crabs and lots of sea plants. The girls were totally fascinated and didn't want to miss seeing a thing.
Our next stop was Nye Beach, it was so clean and beautiful.
We played in the sand and the FRIGID ocean and had alot of fun.
Justun, Jasun and the girls also found a jellyfish on their exploration of the beach, it looks gross to me, but they sure thought it was cool.
The real reason we went to Oregon was Dave and Nancy needed to add on to their existing deck and Justun & Jasun happen to have a little talent in that area. So the above pictures are before, during and after construction. Nancy was EXTREMELY happy about her new deck and 8 foot stairs, it did turn out really nice.
The whole gang on the finished deck.
We spent a day at Moonshine park while Jess was here, it was soooo cool. It had super nice picnic areas with lots of shade or sun depending on your preference. You could take a small walk down to the water where you could swim or tube or fish. There was a small waterfall by us and this awesome mossy tree that had a little hollow you could climb in. We had Aunt Nancy's fried chicken for lunch and Uncle Dave's sour dough cinnamon rolls for dessert, could we ask for anything more? I already miss Aunt Nancy's cooking, I am sure Justun does too!
Last but not least, on the way home we stopped at Multnomah Falls. I have been here before and thought it was beautiful and I just knew the girls would love it. I was right, Abby even had to get a pamphlet so she could learn all the facts about the falls. Yeah, I know she is kind of a nerd, but she couldn't be any other way for me =)
So there you have it. Newport, Oregon is a must visit for anyone who hasn't been there and I hope to visit (and run) there again really soon!
