california/oregon coast, part five

after our stop in the redwoods, we continued up the coast and into oregon.

we first stopped in gold beach.

the plan was to stop and eat at a place that came recommended and then continue on.

we found the restaurant.

it was closed.

just for the month of january.

so we found a subway instead.

the rogue river in gold beach

we wanted to stop in bandon and check out the west coast game park but they were only open on weekends during january.

there are several lighthouses along the coast as well, but we knew that tours don't open until april, so we vetoed those too.

one of the bridges as we were driving into newport.

we're dorks, we know, but we thought it was cool that a portion of the bridge moved to allow boats to pass.

so our final stop and stay for the night was going to be in newport.

when we got to newport, we found a restaurant that was on the beach because the mr. wanted seafood and this would be our last night on the coast.

we picked the best restaurant and the best night to go.

they were having their customer appreciation night, which only happens once a year.

everything was half off.

yay, us.

so the plan for tuesday was to head to the wax works and ripley's believe it or not.

we were going to skip the oregon coast aquarium because we were planning on going to the zoo when we got to portland.

so we head out tuesday morning to head to the places we had planned.

well, as luck would have it, the wax works and ripley's were closed on tuesdays.

they were open mondays.

they were open wednesday.

just not tuesday.

just a note of advice:  don't go to the coast in january/february.

it's their off season.

we knew some things wouldn't be open because we checked ahead of time.

we just didn't know all the things we were planning on doing would be closed randomly too.

newport

so instead, we walked down the boardwalk to find salt water taffy.

because really, you can't go to the coast and not get salt water taffy.

well, i can't.

we stopped a little candy store called newport candy shoppe.

yummy.

then, since we were in newport and had already planned on spending the day there, we decided to head to the aquarium.

the girls loved it.

so glad we decided to go.

we got to watch them feed the sea otters.

then the girls got to feel sea creatures in the touch pool.

b was loving that.

and then of course, we had to play on a couple of the statues before we left.

then we stopped somewhere between depoe bay and lincoln city to get some pictures on the beach.

b and the mr. would run from the waves so they couldn't get them.

so cute.