OR fun

Unfortunately I didn't bring out the camera until later in the trip (I was too busy trying to keep the children from running away!): First day in OR we arrived late due to plane issues, but then picked up the rental car. We paid for a midsize (yet again too cheap to get something comfy, still $350 for 11 days) but thank you alamo got a free upgrade to a Toyota highlander becuz no midsizes were available...DARN. This is a car we have always wanted to test drive too! So that was great we love the highlander.
First excursion was the OMSI, museum of science and industry...huge and lots of stuff to do but unfortunately we only had 3.5 hrs till we had to leave and Mikayla didn't get to see the cool physics area. We met up with Byron's sister Becca here and then went to her house in Salem to spend the night. We played games after the kids were in bed. The next morning we drove 2.5 hrs to the coast town of Newport, beautiful mountain like tons of pine trees and overhanging trees on the road, even saw a wild wolf cross the road.
In Newport we went to the aquarium there and hatfield marine science center:
They had awesome touch tanks for the kids at both places with starfish, stingrays, sharks, sea anemones, sea urchins, and other fish. They just kept running from one tank to the next. We also got some super yummy fudge for only $3 (They have cheap good fudge almost everywhere in OR). We then met up with Ambers family and went to the nice 2 bedroom beach front Inn. Mikayla woke up in the middle of the night throwing up.
The next morning we went whale watching with our own personal marine biologist! Only 6 seats on the boat so Byron stayed behind with sick Mikayla and Buddy. We found one whale that came so close to the boat that we smelt its awful breath when it spouted! It almost made me puke! it smelled like raw sewage! The whale came within 6-12 feet at one point. We also saw sea lions and seals. Kenzie did not like the boat ride very much. She just wanted to go back cuz it was making her sick. It was quite rocky when we were just sitting in the big waves watching for the whale to spout.The same day as whale watching we went to tide pools (this is a tide pool at extremely low tide, all the brown stuff is slippery seaweed.). The kids saw tons of starfish and sea anemones

Amber's sister Linsey watched buddy while we walked over really slippery rocks to find starfish. Buddy had fun throwing these lava round rocks which made up the beach there.

At the end of that day we drove a few more hours along the coast to the house in Bandon that we stayed at for 1 week. At least the drive was beautiful...along the coastline the whole way.