First Pacific Encounter

After a long day of driving through Washington and half of Oregon we bedded down in Newport. There our boys caught their first glimpse (and freezing cold touches) of the Pacific Ocean. I have to admit that I expected milder temperatures, but it was really quite cold. The locals assured us that this area is always sweatshirt weather with highs barely breaking 65˚ in the summer.

For most of the evening we walked the beach outside our motel room. It was a surreal experience to say the least. Most of the time you couldn’t see more than twenty feet in front of you because the fog was so thick. The dry sands, however, were toasty warm. You could literally see the condensation occurring; it was like walking through a cloud. It looked more like how you would describe a dream: you could vaguely make out the people and the area, but the details were real sketchy.

We did get a break of sunshine while visiting Yaquina Head’s Cobblestone Beach. There we observed the powerful waves pound the rocky headlands and explored several resulting tide pools. The boys were transfixed with the many different colors of sea stars, the abundant mussels and various sea anemones. But nothing seemed to turn their heads (or stomachs) more than the large harbor seal carcass decomposing on the beach. The rangers were kind enough to put orange cones around it so that we wouldn’t feel tempted to climb on it.