375 Miles Later...

We arrived in Newport!

I was kinda worried about how this weekend was going to go because of the pounding rain near Westport, WA... but it cleared up before we reached Seaside! The Seaside Aquarium was incredible, for how small it was! They had three giant pacific octopi... two wolf eels... and numerous varieties of fishes. They had a five foot long squid preserved in a glass tank, and a 28 pound lobster named Victor that had been rescued years ago and died in captivity. And besides all this, the main attraction was getting to hand feed the seals ourselves! They were so much fun! They splashed me in the face once when I was trying to take a picture. We spent an hour and a half at this little aquarium! What fun!

We did so much today! We stopped off in Westport first, walked around and saw the whale skeletons outside the maritime museum there. We stopped for gas in Astoria, OR, right across the Colombia River from Washington. After the aquarium experience, we went out on the beach for a moment as the clouds began to part and we saw a little sunshine! On our way back to the car we did a little window shopping at the carousel mall... and we stopped at Subway for a couple quick 6 inchers. On the road again for a moment (7 miles), we stopped a little past Cannon Beach, and got out there just in time to see a blazing sun starting to set. Many pictures of Haystack Rock later, we continued on our journey south, stopping at least 6 times at turnoffs to take pictures and enjoy the beautiful light. There was more lovely scenery along the way, but my memory card was maxed out... good thing I have my laptop with me! We got to Tillamook, OR, at 7:30, and there we stopped at Fred Meyer for some snack stuff. I even got a little piece of fresh Tillamook cheese, just for the novelty of eating it in Tillamook. We continued on at 8pm, and now it was dark. I ate some macaroni/shrimp salad on the way.

Both my friend and I sang loudly with Jon Foreman, so I didn't have near enough chance to feel sleepy... that, and I'm so darn excited to be on this trip. The scenery has been so lovely so far... turquoise water, mossy bright green trees, golden sunshine, green, green, green everywhere!

We arrived in Newport at 9:30PM, dumped our stuff in the hotel, and then headed to Safeway to get something my friend needed.

I so can't wait for another aquarium tomorrow! Along with the Marine Science Center, alongside it. YeeeHaaaaw!

Jp