Good morning!
Last night dad and I listened to the seals. We could hear them off in the distance from the parking lot of the hotel. It was wonderful! 10/10, would recommend.
We packed up our swag and tucked it away in the truck before having breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. I ordered a burrito and the guys had something less exciting.
Breakfast burrito
I ate half before throwing in the towel. Then I picked the metaphorical towel back up and ate some of Cam's pancakes. He's a good sport because I seem to do this a lot at breakfast.
The view from where we sat was gorgeous.
#blessed
We got done a little after 10 and found directions to the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
We're coming for you seals
We arrived about a quarter after 10 and Dad parked in the "tufted puffin" lot.
"Tanks for having me" (that's a pun not a spelling error)
It starts indoors. You walk around and look at marine life in tanks and there's some facts on shipwrecks.
Green moray eel
Chocolate chip sea star
The green moray eel was hella creepy. They grow to be 8 ft which disturbed me until I saw the spider crab grows to be 13 ft and can live for 100 years.
Japanese spider crab
I took a video of the sea nettles because they're so fascinating to watch.
Pacific sea nettle
The entire aquarium is so peaceful. It's a very relaxing experience watching creatures float around and I thought the Oregon Aquarium did a really nice job. They had fake waves for a few large displays and an area where you could touch the more tame sea life.
I poked a purple sea urchin and it moved to hold my finger. So cute! We were practically holding hands. Then I touched the giant green anemone which was very soft and also held onto my finger. It was sticky so you have to gently pry your finger away.
Keep your friends close but your anemone closer.
Once done in those exhibits you go outside. There were a few turkey vultures watching people from their perches. I'm not sure what they're doing at an aquarium but I love birds so no complaints here.
"Keep walking...."
We had just missed the sea otters lunchtime so only one was still hanging out grooming herself (or himself).
Right next to the otters was a giant octopus (which I didn't take a picture of because I'm a dumb dumb) that had just been fed. It had a giant clam inside of a rubber ball with smaller holes in it for the octopus to stick tentacles into to crack the shell. They made him work for his food.
Next to the octopus were my homies the seals. They were being fed lunch! The seals also had to work for their food by performing tricks (turn around, swim fast, stand up, lie down, pose, that sort of thing). It was adorable! I think they know as many tricks as Rikku.
Around 11:15 we went into the bird area. All the birds are in their fall, non-breeding, plumage.
Common murre (black and white) and migeon guillemot (grey)
They were about to be fed. A murre waddled over and stole a fish from the bucket.
Thief
We watched them catch fish, a mixture of salmon and trout. Once they started throwing the fish back their handler said they were probably done eating.
We went back inside to look at the giant aquariums you can walk through.
They had sting rays and sharks and that's all I knew the name of, to be honest.
What the hell is that
There were glass bottoms to walk on and see things swim beneath you.
And that was it! The exit was through the gift shop and I tried a sample of fudge. It was delicious so I bought a square of raspberry and peanut butter for $7.50.
Score!
We left around 11:45 or noon and said goodbye to Newport. We hadn't decided if we would stay in Vancouver that night or push on for a few hours outside Vancouver. What we had decided was that we needed to stop at the McMinnville Aviation & Space Museum. It was maybe an hour away and the drive to McMinnville was pretty.
The museum was four massive buildings, one for space, one for planes, one that's a theater, and one for kids. The price to get into the plane museum was $28 a person which was really expensive but dad paid for us three. There weren't separate rooms to go into, everything was on display inside and open floor plan.
The Spruce Goose, bigger than a football field, was there. It's too big! I couldn't get a good picture to justify it's size. We took the steps up to walk inside the Goose.
The inflatable balls were for buoyancy and most had their original air from nearly 70 years ago.
There were so many planes it was kind of overwhelming.
Pake's old plane was there!
Curtiss P-40N Warhawk
There was an area on smokejumpers and the history of that. They also had videos set up around the museum. Former pilots were talking about missions they went on. And more planes!
Howdy
My favorite was a British jet fighter named Vampire. It was called "Delightfully Unsophisticated" for it's lack of ejector seats and that no one survived belly landing. Someone said it stayed afloat for 30 seconds after crashing into water. That was a record.
de Havilland D.H. 100 Vampire
They had an area with mannequins set up to display scenes of parachuters, a father and son hunting, Lewis and Clarke, the old west (AKA Deadwood)... I'm not sure what it represented but it was neat.
And then an area dedicated to the Boy Scouts. The guy that built this place had two sons and his favorite son was a boy scout as a kid so it was dedicated to him.
I think the McMinnville Air Museum did a really great job. I have no idea how they acquired so many planes, the cost must be insane. There were a few displays that were incomplete with notes next to them asking people to contact them if they knew where missing parts were. My only regret is not knowing any planes puns.
I'm not sure what time we left. We got back to driving. Dad wanted to go to an antique store in Lafayette. It ended up being a bust so we left shortly after. We ate fudge in the truck and drove to Portland.
The traffic was awful in Portland. I would shoot myself if I lived here. There was a guy in front of us that kept cawing like a damn bird out his car window. I was about ready to throw dad's spit cup at him.
I think we got to Beppe and Pake's around 5 or 6. We had dinner with them. It was roast beef, mashed potatoes, salad, Beppe's pickles, carrots from her garden, and cherry pie with ice cream. I didn't take a picture because that would have been weird. Dinner was very good! Beppe is an A+ chef.
After eating we watched a few recaps of the presidential debate which wasn't as painful as I thought it might be. I set up a DVD player for the grandparents but their cable box was less than subpar and the video came through sketchy so I took it down right after. We gave hugs goodbye and left sometime after 8 to go to the hotel we had stayed at in Vancouver (we decided not drive anymore as it was dark and rainy and we were all tired)
After checking in, I showered and we all had a quiet night. I think I fell asleep at 11 or 12.
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