Newport

Salem

How wonderful to be back by the Pacific Ocean! We love the water and especially seeing the big waves that late winter/early spring brings crashing onto the shoreline. We explored many of the state parks and walked in among the tidepools. Not sure it is the time of year or what ... but not a lot happening in them. We knew the weather would likely be rainy this time of year and it was but not enough to ruin our adventures. The sea lions were a fun surprise - these are the males that will soon leave the area to go join the females further south in CA.

Several people reported seeing the spouts of the grey whales coming back through the area. Soon they will be abundant. It is so amazing for me to think these are the 'same' whales that Kim and I saw in Hawaii in Jan/Feb this year. They are coming by on their way to Alaska. We keep watching for them.

There is a tiny but very cute area called the Aquarium Village. The shops are all specialty shops but we had fun checking them out along with the many statues. We also stopped in for a St Patrick's Day reuben in one of the cafes.

We took a day trip to Salem and Corvallis. Both very cute towns and some fun things. There was a truck protest at the Capital and then a shooting in Salem so we booked out faster than expected. But we still got to see the park, the carousel, the hospital used for scenes in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and a few other things from the list. The plum and cherry trees were blooming. It was so gorgeous and smelled fabulous!