Whale of a Tale

So last week we went to Newport, Oregon for some fun and relaxation.  We've been there before, so this isn't one of our more adventurous summer vacations, but we decided to go someplace we were more familiar with so we could relax more and take it easy.  I often plan vacations that involve a lot of sightseeing and trying to pack a lot of things into our time, but wanted to be more laid-back this year.

We did still see and do some fun stuff, though.  And I got some pictures.  Yay!

We played a bit on the beach - the weather was probably as nice as it ever gets on the Oregon coast.
Here's Ashlee hanging out next to a big jellyfish we found washed up on the shore.  Don't touch!

We brought Aspen along on the trip, and she seemed to have fun running on the beach and meeting lots of new friends.  She's not very good around other dogs (she barks and growls) but she got a lot of practice and seems to be getting better.

Here's Aspen and the girls running through the surf.

We did have a sudden shark attack, but as you can see, I took care of it.

One of the coolest things we did was to take a whale watching trip out of Depoe Bay.  These little boats hold between 4 and 6 people, and had the ability to get us really quite close up to any whales.  However, because of their size, they also can be a bit like riding a roller coaster.  Here is a picture of one of the other boats that went out at the same time as us, so you can see what the boats were like.
Teri got a little sick, but we all had fun.

We were able to see several whales, and twice a whale breached not more than 20 feet away from the side of our boat.  It was really cool.  Here are a couple of pictures of whales that we got really close to.

The big aquarium in Newport is the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which I highly recommend visiting if you are ever there.  However, we had been there twice before, so we decided to check out a smaller place that we had not seen before, the Hatfield Marine Science Center, which is an extension of Oregon State University.  The visitors center is free to visit, though they do suggest a donation of $5 per person.  The highlight of the science center is the pacific octopus, which they feed publicly twice a week.  We showed up just in time to see it being fed, and it was pretty cool to watch.

We saw a ton of sea lions on the docks downtown when we were visiting.

In the wax museum, Christine and I found a scruffy-looking nerf-herder we recognized.

And finally, here's Sasquatch sneaking up on Teri in Ripley's Believe it or Not.