Fortunately for everyone (if I do say so myself), I’ve been doing this travel planning thing for quite a while now and enjoy the challenge. I booked us a night at a yurt at a campground in Newport (a three-hour drive from Portland) and three nights in a beach house in Bandon (an additional two hour drive). We’re familiar with Newport, but we’ve never stayed in a yurt before. I thought the kids would get a kick out of it. I also wanted to go to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We haven’t ever really spent any time in Bandon, so it gave J and I a chance to explore a new part of the state. Besides, who doesn’t love the beach?
We arrived in Newport to a torrential rain storm (not pictured). I was extremely grateful that we were yurt camping and not tent camping.
The aquarium was a huge hit (even bigger than the yurt). Sammy LOVES fish tanks so I knew that he would especially enjoy fish tank after fish tanks. He did. He spent all of three hours going from tank to tank to tank, and back to the first tank again, pointing and saying “fishy!” I stayed with him and let him explore at his own speed. He spent several long minutes watching the jelly fish, the kelp forest, the sea lions, and the sharks. Clare, on the other hand, bounded around saying “I want to see sharks! Now I want to see sea otters! Where’s the octopus?” J followed her around, trying to keep up with her energy and trying to impart a little bit of marine biology.
After the aquarium, it was onto Bandon. We found Bandon to be worth the drive – it was so fun! It has a lovely little bay front boardwalk/downtown, lovely beaches and nice people. We rented a very comfortable little beach front house, which made getting to the beach really easy.
We spent most of the time running on the beach – Clare and J running in and out of the waves, Sam running from sticks and rocks to throw, me running after whoever needed their shoes and socks carried or their hands brushed off or offering to catch them as they climbed things. We drove to new beaches, explored a light house, and went for a short hike.
There were some lovely moments like this too. Ahhhhhh… vacation.
