Day 7, continued, Newport, Walking to Arctic Circle for a treat

Because this is the trip of ice cream, when we got to our hotel in Newport after a busy day, we saw we were basically down the road from an Arctic Circle. Who knew they were in Oregon? 

So after our hotel dinner of chicken sandwiches we walked for shakes and ice cream. 

Walking down the main street of Newport. 
 

Day 7, Pacific City beach

Out of order pic of Collin helping Adeline build something. 

I met a woman at our airbnb at Seaside, that told me Pacific City beach is BY FAR the best beach to tide pool at.....so even though it wasn't originally in our plans, we decided to stop. Due to some other circumstances, we didn't get there quite as early for low tide as we had planned, so some of the tide had already started coming back in. But look at that sun! This was the first beach that felt "like a beach" in all of Oregon ha ha. 

We thought about putting on our swimsuits, but then realized that would take a lot more time and the water was still absolutely freezing without a wet suit. 

Walking over to the rocky area on the far side to check out the tide pools.

I'm not sure how many pictures you can take at a beach, but I kept taking them ha ha. 

Walking over to the far side, they had this very cool little nook in the rocks that some of the kids explored. 

The tide was definitely starting to come in when they came out. 

What a pretty picture!

Jumping in the waves. 

Cute token kid picture. 

More and more exploring. 

Adeline found this huge piece of seaweed that she loved getting covered in sand and then taking out to the ocean. 

The seaweed "creature". 

We didn't explore the sand dune at the beach but it was MASSIVE!

Ahh....the beaches were so great along the coast. 
 

Day 7 continued, the Octopus Tree

On the other side of the parking lot, there is a little walk to the Octopus Tree. It was SUCH a cool tree. And another beautiful walk. How cool is that tree looking?!?!?!

Collin in front.

Such a beautiful beautiful coastline with FINALLY blue sky!

This was a great day!
 

Day 7, continued, Cape Meares lighthouse

What a beautiful beautiful place. 

After the Tillamook Creamery, we went and drove over to the Cape Meares lighthouse walk. It was SO SO gorgeous. Maybe because we finally had some blue skies!

Man! SO SO pretty!

This was a little famous rock out there in the bay, so Evelyn and I did a funny pose. 

Cape Meares lighthouse. 

Looking out into the cape. 

We got to go into the bottom part of the actual lighthouse and get a tour from a docent who told us the story of how they got the lighthouse up on the hill. It was NUTSO how they built it. 

I can't remember now how much these glass panels weighed, but it is a LOT. 

Such a beautiful walk and place. 
 

Day 7, Tillamook Creamery

EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, said if we were close we needed to go to the Tillamook Creamery on our trip. So planned that. It was a little bit of a drive out there, but it was very cool. Walking in, that place was a very busy place. 

Sorry, out of order pics, of one last chess game at Seaside before we left. 

A "few" of the zillions of shells we have collected so far. 

The Tillamook Creamery had this huge interactive area that explained all about their cows and the ownership of the company. It was VERY interesting. 

We have been on quite a few "tours" of food places and this one definitely is one of the top ones. They had so much information and things you could see and learn about. 

I was impressed how much the ownership belongs to the farmers now. 

These salt tubes were very hot. The salt goes super fast in there to push it to the cheese. 

One of the coolest parts of the tour is they had so many windows to look down on all the parts you were learning about. 

And all the workers were there doing exactly what the captions said they were doing so you really got to see what was happening "live" so to speak.

We got to try 6 year old cheese! It was pretty tasty. 

And we, along with a zillion other people, ate in the restaurant there. 

And of course we got ice cream. 

It was a very fun couple of hours there! Thanks Tillamook!