Thursday at the Oregon Coast

On Thursday morning we hung out at the house for a bit until Sydney was ready for her nap.

Then Andy stayed with Baby Girl while the rest of the group went looking for seals and sea lions at the Rogue River Jetty.  We saw so many!  We walked along the shoreline and saw a few swimming (with surfers), and we saw dozens hanging out at the docks.  They seemed to be almost as curious about us as we were about them.

There are two little heads poking out of the water on the left side of this picture.

When Sydney was finished with her nap we headed south to check out the Samuel P. Boardman Scenic Corridor.  Our first stop was Arch Rock.

The next pullout was to a cool formation called Natural Bridge.  We decided that next time we're in the area we'll at least walk down to the rock, but this time we satisfied ourselves with the view from a distance.

We drove into Brookings to get sandwiches at a little deli/corner store, where the kids made friends with a dog who was starved for time with children because of so much isolation.  Win win win.  We then drove to Harris Beach State Park to try our luck at tidepooling again.  There was a high wind advisory and I was starting to worry that we were tromping down the beach with no rocky places for tidepools in sight, when we climbed over some big rocks and found a spot with some crabs walking around.  Then Ben discovered the real treasure trove: a protected area that was much less windy, and had tons of the animal I was really hoping to see: starfish!  I was looking and looking and finally spotted one at the bottom of a rock, and before long, we were all spotting them everywhere.  Ben lucked into a starfish that wasn't completely latched onto a rock and let everyone touch and hold it who wanted to do so.  It wasn't soft and squishy as you might expect; it was very firm and un-bendy, and the ones that were on the rocks were really ON the rocks.  Ben also found a sea cucumber, which was weird-looking.

(a big ol' sand flea)

Andy's family headed back to the house after the state park, while our family made two more stops on the Scenic Corridor.  First was Cape Ferrelo.  This turned out to be our most memorable adventure on the coast because a short hike through the woods led to a grassy cliff that was crazy-windy.  We were all amazed at how windy it was!  But we made it to an amazing lookout with a panoramic view of two different coves.  It was really cool.

Our last stop was at Whaleshead Beach, where we just hiked part of the way down to the beach.  This is another area I'd like to explore more next time we're in the neighborhood.

That evening Cat took care of all the kids so the adults could go out for dinner.  Sawyer was really excited to have a Cousin Party and chose for everyone to watch Space Buddies together, but he ended up playing games on his tablet during the movie.  Kids.  I'm glad they had some time to just relax together, though, and the adults enjoyed the adult time as well!