This was on our way there with the Three Sisters Mountains in the background.
Near Eagle Crest we went and took a tour of a Goody's factory. It only cost $2 and that included 6 delicious samples.
Donnell in heaven because of the chocolates!
I love the landscape of Oregon and how daisies (my favorite flower) just grows wild there. So, so, so beautiful. 
We spent part of one day walking along Newport's Historic Bayfront, enjoying the murals, ice cream, people crabbing off the dock, and all of the shops. 
This picture was taken by setting the camera on a post. The funny thing was that everyone passing had no idea that the camera was there and we looked like this crazy family posing for no reason. :)
On one of our days Katy, Nate and I went on quite the adventure. We went to explore the tide pools in our favorite spot Boiler Bay (which is named that because a boiler from a wrecked ship floated into the bay and has remained there ever since.) Well, we started heading along the tide pools and trying to get to a really neat rock in the distance. When we finally arrived we found out real quick that we were not going to be able to climb that rock because the seagulls were giving us all they had to protect their babies on top of it.... dive bombing, squawking, pooping. So we made it back to a little beach where Nate found a small ocean cave. Meanwhile, I was trying to decide a way to get to the road rather than backtrack along the tide pools. I climbed up this hillside and immediately I was in the deepest darkest forest I have ever been in. But, there was a trail so it looked promising, I signaled for the others to come and we went on our way. To add to the creepiness of this dark forest/jungle, we had just watched the night before a show on finding sasquatch and how there had been sightings in Oregon. :) But, no luck, we didn't see him. So, once we made it out to the road we realized that the sun was still out and we made it back in time for supper. 
Another day we decided to go whale watching. We could see gray whales from our condo every day that we were there but we wanted to find out what was so exciting about going out on the boat. It cost $16 and I would have paid that purely for the boat ride. It was an absolute blast, we were right up at the bow of the boat. This was my first time on a boat in the open ocean. The waves made it feel like you were riding a roller coaster and the waves would splash up on you when they hit just right. But to add to the excitement, Captain Dan took us straight to where 3 gray whales were feeding. We were looking at one about a 100 feet away when all of a sudden one spouted 20 feet from where I was standing. I screamed out of surprise and excitement. Everyone made fun of how earlier in the week I saw a whale very close to the shore and I told them that "I saw his barnacles" like it was embarrassing or something. Anyway, we could see all of this whale including his tail which was very exciting. It was absolutely awe-inspiring to see the whale in the water and see his enormous shadow and how his body would roll along the surface for so long. I felt so small and insignificant next to those magnificent creatures.
Us sopping wet from the ocean waves but we loved every minute of it. :)
One night Nate and I cooked fresh crab for dinner, with the emphasis on fresh. He was pulled up out of the ocean right in front of us and bought for $11. Nate enjoyed every second of me freaking out and screaming trying to take this picture. We had about an hour before we were going to cook the crab so we set it on the counter and put a wet hand towel on top of it. So about 20 mins. later out of pure habit I reached over and wiped my hands on the hand towel and screamed again when I remembered that there was a live crab under it. Needless to say, I survived, Nate and dad cooked an amazing crab, and dinner was delicious. We also cooked a taster of fresh salmon, halibut and rockfish. Halibut by far was my favorite, too bad it was $17.99 a pound.
This is down inside of Devil's Punchbowl at low tide. During high tide it fills up and the water crashes through that hole in the rock behind us and comes in and churns around and you can watch it through the open hole at the top. Needless to say you wouldn't want to be inside of it like we are if it were high tide. 
This is Drift Creek Falls Suspension Bridge. This is just a walking bridge that is 240 feet long and about 100 feet off the of the ground in the middle. It was a lot of fun but would be very hard to cross if you were afraid of heights. 
This is down in a tide pool at low tide at Cobblestone Beach. It was very cold as you can tell I have two coats on and Nate's got his coat all the way zipped up. This beach and tide pools are very unique because they are made out of black lava rocks. 
This is Yaquina Head Lighthouse, 93 feet tall, Oregon's tallest lighthouse. It also is still functioning to guide ships into harbor. We were able to go inside of it and climb the stairs to the top and see the light and the view of the ocean from inside a lighthouse. 
This is the one beach that we decided that it was warm enough to play in the sand and water a little bit. But it was still the pacific coast in Oregon which means freezing cold water. Anyway, we still had a lot of fun building sand castles that ended up being sea turtles, running through the water when it splashed up on the sand, and flying kites. 
This is the beginning of the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Newport. We decided it would be a lot of fun to walk across it. It was absolutely amazing how high up it was and to feel it shake a little when trucks would drive past. The wind up there was absolutely crazy, I often held on to the rail just not to be blown over.
Nate and I sitting on cobblestone beach. So this beach happens to be very rare. It is a beach made up of a whole bunch of perfectly smooth cobblestones. We spent a whole hour there just sitting and listening to the waves hit the cobblestones. You'd never be able to fully appreciate it without going there but the waves hit and it sincerely sounds like a 1,000 people applauding. 
The shops were a ton of fun to go around to and to look at all of their fun stuff. We also went to a saltwater taffy shop and bought one of almost every flavor. 
This is just outside of our condo. This was the amazing view that we had for a whole week. Just over this ledge was a colony of harbor seals. They were so much fun to watch. Almost everyday I would just stand right there and watch the seals interact, swim, and be washed off of their rock when the tide came in too high. 
Nate decided to try surfing. :) No, actually there was this funny thing that was purposely for taking pictures. So, we got a picture of every one of us surfing. 
A nice sunny day in Oregon!
So, this was so, so, so exciting. Nate is quite the explorer and he climbed up some rocks at one of the beaches we were at and happened to find a spouting horn or something along those lines. Anyway, the wave would come in and the rocks would rumble a deep rumbling sound and then the water would shoot up and out sometimes even up to probably 30 feet or more. It was so thrilling to sit their and watch it. 
On our way home we stopped at Multnomah falls which is the second tallest year round waterfall in the United States. It is absolutely gorgeous. We had such a fun time on our vacation and are so glad that we were able to go with family and enjoy it all together. 
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