Day 2, Bullard Beach, OR

Woke up to rain in Astoria. Quite a bit of rain, and it just kept raining and raining. We packed up camp with wet everything. What a mess.

Our first stop was in Seaside, where the boys showed Tia and I where they had spent the previous summer with Grandma. It was a lovely town and there weren’t a whole gob of people there yet. We spent a few minutes on the beach and a few nanoseconds in the water. The weather was just not cooperating though, so we had to leave earlier than we would have liked. Subway warmed us up and filled our bellies.

Every few miles we pulled off the road to take a look at the gargantuan rocks sticking up out of the ocean. There really was quite a few of them scattered along the coastline, and they seemed to travel in flocks. I read somewhere that Haystack Rock is the third largest rock of that type in the world. I suppose someone somewhere has the job of Rock Measurer of the Planet, and he decided it was pretty darn big, and I concur.


Newport Aquarium is quite impressive, although it seems to me that they are always rather small compared to zoos. I suppose that’s not an equal comparison. In all fairness though, the aquarium was worth seeing. It had some jellies that were floofing around in their tanks. I wonder how they know where in the heck they’re going? I love jellies.


Somewhere along 101 we tripped over the Sea Lion Caves and decided to check them out. There are some good reviews and some really horrid reviews on the caves, so I was torn whether to spend the money to see them or not, but due to an extreme amount of peer pressure I gave in. And it turned out to be money well spent. There were two observation points with views of very fat and happy sea lions. Before you get to the viewing decks you can hear them hollering from below and they sound like a bunch of Harleys. I really thought it was motorcycles making the noise, really. The second part of the self-guided tour is a 200-foot elevator ride down to the cave, which claims to be the largest sea cave in the world. Now I haven’t seen many sea caves in my time, but this was a gargantuan cave, so I would not be surprised if it was true. The center of the cave had a large rock protruding up out of the sea, and slathered on the top were a bunch of sea lions and one huge male. This tour was Tia’s favorite attraction/event in Oregon.


Then we pulled in late to our campsite at Bullard Beach. It was still just the dreariest weather, so we were thrilled to have a yurt. After roasting marshmallows, we were visited by the cleaning crew, otherwise known as a raccoon. He made sure our spot was clean, and then lumbered off into the woods. I loved him!