Thursday, August 29, 2013

What I Did On My Summer Vacation Part 7 :: Sea Gypsy

Our second big vacation of the summer was to Lincoln City.   My mom rented two units at the Sea Gypsy condominiums, one for us and one for her and my brother.  The location was perfect!  Right next to the D River and right on the beach.  We had fabulous views of the ocean and the condos were well stocked with everything we needed for the beach.  We also enjoyed the swimming pool there.


We visited the Devil's Punchbowl and I completely failed to take a picture of it.  But I got these shots of the boys in a tree that's on the little walking trail by the cliffs.  Silly boys. 



One of my favorite memories from that trip was seeing some surfers in the water.  The waves were really low and most of the surfers didn't stand up to ride them in.  But we saw one guy just waiting and waiting for a good wave.  It was really exciting for us when he found one and surfed toward the beach.  When he stood up we all cheered aloud.  It was really satisfying to see him succeed.

We also stopped by the Hatfield Marine Science Center.  I had never been before and it's awesome!  The kids got to build a little lego town and then send a tsunami to wash it away.  There was a giant octopus, tons of fish to look at and a bunch of hands on exhibits.  

Of course, they loved exploring this tiny yellow submarine outside, too.


I actually didn't take any pictures inside because we were so busy exploring.


Way to rock the socks and sandals, Noah.  You truly are from the Northwest.

After the Science Center we went on to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium.  I found this coupon (which expires at the end of September) that gets one child in for free with an adult admission.  So we printed three coupons and split the boys up among the adults. 


This next picture almost looks like a scene out of Star Trek.


They loved climbing over all the rocks and statues.


I wish I had been in video mode for this one.  Miles was shouting gleefully, "We're riding a fish!!"


I love the Shark Tunnel at the the Newport Aquarium.  It's so cool.  And really peaceful.


There was this one tube of coral in The Sea & Me exhibit that was really pretty.  I didn't notice these horses for a long time, they were so camouflaged. 


But the more I looked, the more I saw.


The tube was filled with sea horses.


Our family loves the Wii game "Go Vacation."  In the Scuba Diving games you get points for finding fish and other sea creatures.  It was really fun at the aquarium because we recognized a bunch of sea creatures and knew their names before even reading the aquarium plaques.  Like this giant Japanese Spider Crab.  These babies can get up to 12 feet long!  But this one was probably about 4 or 5 feet.


I am super attracted to jellyfish.  Thankfully, the aquarium had several varieties.  These tiny bubble ones.


Moon jellies.

And my favorites, the orange Sea Nettles.


We also saw a beautifully active octopus.  And tons and tons of other sea life.  It was a really fun visit.

Of course, we played at the beach, too!  I mentioned before that our location was perfect.  Right outside our condo the D River met the ocean and created this wonderful play space.  The river water was slightly warmer than the ocean water and I loved that our boys could wade and gather up water in their buckets without having to deal with waves.

Proof that I was at the beach.  Noah painted my toenails orange.  He did a good job.

We carved our initials in the sand.  Messily.


And then the boys wanted to carve their initials.  Here's Noah's.  And the drawing next to it is pun.  It's a guy IN JAIL.  Because his initials are N J L.



Toby spelled out his whole name.

And Miles?

Well, he had other ideas...


Like carving circles around his feet while spinning in place.

Here's a cute video of his sand play.


Granny and the boys explored the river bed.  In fact, Noah and Toby walked with her all the way up the entire river to Devil's Lake!  




We made some cool sand sculptures. Like this octopus.

And this octopus.


And our masterpiece, this sea turtle.

Every time we went back to the beach we expected to see that it had been washed away or stepped on or had its decorations removed.  But nobody touched it!  The seaweed got dried out but otherwise our turtle remained intact.  


Don't you love the sunsets near the ocean? We had some gorgeous ones.

I was playing around with my camera trying to get some good silhouette shots.


They didn't really turn out how I thought but I still love them.  And this boy!  The camera loves him.


That ribbon of light above the clouds was amazing.


Such beauty.  

On our last full day we visited Devil's Lake.  I was excited to see this enormous Sea Monster sculpture!


The boys were excited to see an enormous play structure!


I love these next pictures of the boys with Granny and Uncle Jared.


I wish I had set the camera timer so Geary and I could have jumped in for a family picture.


Noah pushing Uncle Jared down the hole.


Surf "board"

Geary and I did manage to get a couple shots of ourselves.  This one is my favorite.

And this one is Geary's.



On our way out of the park we found this funny wood chair.  


We also explored shops, found some treasures at a thrift store, ate salt water taffy, went to great restaurants (Mo's and McMenamins) and one not so great (Lil Sambo's).  We visited bookstores and admired glass fishing floats and played board games and just enjoyed each other.  It was wonderful.

Sigh, I already miss Lincoln City.  It was such a great trip.  Lots of relaxing, lots of playing, lots of exploring new places.  We had a fabulous time.  Thank you so much, Granny, for everything!  We loved spending time with you and Uncle Jared.   We can't wait to do it again!

1 comment:

  1. I love, love your summer travelogue. Purely vicarious living, since I have not had one summer-like recreational moment this season. All is not lost, however -- going camping for a week on monday! PS watch your mail.

    ReplyDelete

Linharts love comments!