Seaside, Part 4 of WA/OR trip, Oct. 2012

Well, our trip to WA/OR has been full of fun, new things to do. We hiked through the Ape Caves, visited Mount St. Helens, explored OMSI and enjoyed a potluck dinner with friends so far. Now onto more exciting adventure...the children's first time to the ocean!

Karen and Scott had the day off, so we packed up, stopped at Starbucks, then headed west. It was a wet day, but the drive was beautiful. After about an hour, we arrived at Camp 18, our breakfast stop before getting to see the ocean. Camp 18 is a logging museum. There were huge 2 man saws, enormous chain saws, boots with spikes for climbing trees, and all sorts of other logging equipment. A fascinating place. Check out the website. And their food was great too! Michael, Karen and I all enjoyed the Kielbalsa Skillet. Yummy...my tummy just growled thinking about it! And they have a cinnamon roll that is the size of a dinner plate...just mentioning it in case you want to try it sometime. We resisted...

From there, we traveled on to Seaside, OR, for the kids' first view of and play in the Pacific Ocean. They thought it was really cool...literally! They had to strip off their shoes and socks; luckily they had SmartWools so it was ok getting them back on when they were done. They truly had a blast. They didn't want to get soaked, so they'd watch the waves then run!

Then there's this last photo from Michael's iPhone. After I loaded it to my computer, I noticed this whole double/ghost image on everyone. Sort of cool, yet sort of spooky!

The kids' feet were frozen, so we washed them in the fountain and put their socks and shoes back on so we could go do more things. But first, we watched some people fly their kites, and went into an informational building to see a life-sized shark.

 Kites...

 Here's Jonathan, nonchalantly standing by the poster of the shark. Of course, Mommy thinks he ought to be a little more animated, like this...

 Aaak! A shark!

 

 Our little family standing by the statue of Lewis and Clark at the end of their exploratory trip west.

Then, on to the aquarium. We bought a little tub of fish pieces and fed the seals. Those seals have definite personalities. One would lay and slap his side, another would bark, another would wave his head back and forth, another would swim then jump up onto a rock to splash, another would slap the water to splash. What a hoot! We ventured further inside the aquarium where you can actually touch sea anemones, sandpaper-textured starfish and a prickly sea urchins in the "Touch Tank". 

Outside of the aquarium, you can view the 35-foot skeleton of a Gray Whale. I'd post a pic, but we didn't take one and do you think I can find one on any of Seaside's sites? argh

After the aquarium, we walked a little through the town looking for souvenirs. Annisia remembered from our planning that there was a carousel in town, so we found it and the kids got a ride. Can you see her peeking at you?!

After some Tillamook ice cream and a latte, that wasn't worth the price I paid for it...(wahh, spoiled by Starbucks!), oh, and the inevitable meltdown by one of the kids (I'll let you guess which one) we started for home. What a good time in Seaside!

 Scott, our faithful and fearless driver...oh, and Karen's boyfriend!

 Karen, Annisia, Jonathan, and I...enjoying the ride in our rented Acadia.

And the little girl who had the meltdown got a nap...yay!

After dinner at The Original Taco House in Portland, we crashed at Karen and Scott's. Check back later for details on our next fun day on our trip...

OMSI etc, Part 3 of WA/OR trip, Oct. 2012

On Thursday, we visited the Ape caves and Mount St. Helens. This post is about what we did Friday during our fun trip to Washington and Oregon in October 2012.

Karen and Scott had taken the next couple of days off so we could play with them! Yay! So we found the nearest Starbucks to get our fix then headed into downtown Portland to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. We enjoyed a couple special features. One was the OMNIMAX theatre. We chose to see "To the Arctic". (This link may not bring up details on this show after March 31, 2013.) It was a great movie "witnessing one mother polar bear’s determination to keep her cubs alive in the face of natural predators and a rapidly changing climate." Annisia liked the baby polar bears...of course!

We visited the Science Lab and the Turbine Hall where the kids learned how to make gas, then light it, how to change air flow from tube to tube to shoot little balls across the room. We visited the Paleontology Lab in the Earth Hall.

The special feature was something called Grossology...click on "Click here for Grossology", then "Show Me" then "5,000 sq ft plan" and that's what OMSI had when we were there. This from OMSI's site..."What makes a nose run? Why does drinking soda make us burp? Where does food travel during digestion? The Oregon Museum of Science (OMSI) invites visitors to find the answers to probing questions like these and more as they explore all the slimy, mushy, oozy, scaly and stinky gross (yet scientific) things that occur every day inside us. Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body opens at the museum September 29." If you're interested, click on "Download Image Sheet (JPG)" to see photos and descriptions of all the exhibits.

Jonathan became a dust particle inside a giant nose at the Grossology exhibition to learn about air filtering and heating, olfaction and mucus production.

Annisia scales a skin wall where scabs, pimples and blisters are the foot-holds.

We took a tour of the USS Blueback, the U.S. Navy's last non-nuclear, fast-attack submarine. Michael and I have taken the tour before, but it was fun to show the kids.

We went out into the windy drizzle to go down to the submarine. It is docked in the Willamette River close to the Marquam Bridge, a double deck bridge. North/east bound traffic uses the top and south/west bound traffic uses the bottom. I used to drive the Marquam to and from work in Portland when I lived in Vancouver.

Jonathan and Annisia were fascinated with all the interesting details; how they layer the #10 cans of food on the floor and fill some of the bunks with food so they have enough food to last before surfacing, how small their bunks are, how they rotate bunks...if you're on shift, someone else is sleeping in the bunk you just vacated, and more. As we descended into the submarine, the tour guide pointed out the step on which a blue line was painted...that's where we went below the water line. Annisia thought that was cool. Jonathan was interested in the torpedoes. I was glad to be done with the tour as the fuel smell was getting to me and I was feeling claustrophobic.

The propeller from the submarine. The USS Blueback was used in the movie The Hunt for Red October.

We left OMSI by 3pm so as to get across the bridge to Vancouver before traffic hit. We planned to meet up with friends, Joyce and Richard, before the potluck that was planned. The kids got to see big ships on our way across the Columbia River on the I-5 bridge. We found ourselves another Starbucks to keep fortified. By now, Annisia had fallen asleep, which was good. We got our drinks, then met Joyce and Richard at a park by Fort Vancouver. The kids played while we visited. Then off to Paul and Glenna's home for a small visit before heading to Bill and Debbie's home for the potluck. What a good time! It was nice to meet up with some of the people I used to go to meeting with. John and Rebecca, Edie, Bob and Alida, Rex and Donna, Daryl and Tara and their kids, H and K...(their names are unusual enough that I won't post them because of my confidentiality rule.) The kids enjoyed meeting H and K...they thought they were COOL and didn't want to part at the end of the evening!