Oregon Trip: Day 6

On Sunday, we drove from the campout area up to Beverly Beach State Park, a bit north of Newport, arriving just in time to get some dinner and get in bed. This was the day that Kiera was fighting a fever; thankfully she slept most of the morning and through the driving.

Monday we decided to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium, but as we hopped on the highway to head south back to Newport we could see at least a mile of backed up construction traffic. So we turned around and headed north to the Devil's Punchbowl. This is Kiera with a little squirrel near the punchbowl viewing area. It seemed totally unafraid- I wondered if it was blind... I'd read that there was a good tidepooling beach near there, so we asked at the local seafood shack and found the most darling little beach ever!

I used this picture for the girls' birthday "friend party" invite. I thought it was priceless!!!

Melia was so excited that she found this "dinosaur bone!" :0)

Tidepooling is so much fun- but Kiera was more about collecting thousands of mussel shells...

After playing around and really enjoying ourselves at the little beach, we though we'd head back to the beach at the campground before dinner. Don't let the beautiful sunshine deceive you; this beach was cold! The wind was freezing, but it provided the opportunity to fly our little kite. Melia loved helping Daddy- pretty soon she may be able to do it herself!

This beach also was perfect for wave chasing.

And hand disappearing acts...

The water and sand fascinated Isaac, but he wasn't so sure about the "walking on moving water" thing.

Isaac also really needed some walking time- and the beach was good for that. He'd been close for a while, but most of our trip he was in the trailer, stroller, carseat, or being carried, so he was excited to get out and move!

But the first thing he did after getting back to the towel was curl up and pop his sandy thumb in his mouth! He was cold and done!

That night I had my own little adventure- I spotted a laundromat just outside our campground, so I loaded up all our stinky stuff and headed off after the kids went to bed to do a couple loads. But when I got out there, I realized that it was actually a storage place for someone, with a laundromat sign still on the building... I thought- well, I'm already halfway there... so I drove back to Newport to find a real laundromat. I found one, but the soap dispenser just stole my money, and another person there watched my clothes while I ran to the nearest grocery store to pick up a few detergent travel boxes (oh how I wished I'd had my coupon book!). I got back and finished up, but was about 1/2 hour later than I told Gabe I would be. I had the radios, but was 7 miles away, so I couldn't let him know I was ok. (His cell phone had died a few days into the trip.) He was glad to see me get back, to say the least. The sad thing was... our clothes didn't smell a whole lot better... Isaac's stinky diapers and an accident Kiera had while feverish made them quite... pungent... And apparently I needed some lessons in laundromat machines. Who knows. It was an adventure anyway :-) Other than worrying my husband, I enjoyed it!