After our trip to Taiwan with my parents we decided that it was time to take a vacation with Nate's parents as well. After much collaboration, with my adamant refusal to visit Lincoln City, OR as I've already been there three times and have yet to see any other beach on the Oregon Coast, we decided to head to Seaside, OR for an overnight visit. Due to a party member's health issues we thought we'd try out one night and see how everyone did and then potentially try for a weekend at a later time if all went well.
It was a great mini vacation even if there was a minor hiccup or two. :-) Namely me getting car sick and never getting over it combined with a new medication I'm taking and, well...we'll get to that later.
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| It's been a while since Abby has napped during the entire trip from Pasco, WA to Portland, OR so we have become very familiar with all the kid friendly parks between our house and Nate's parent's house. Abby happened to make it to Cascade Locks before needing some running around time. Thankfully they have an awesome play area with playground equipment, swings, a big grassy area to run around in, and a view of the Columbia River and the various boats that inhabit it. |
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| I LOVE her face in this one. Pure joy! |
After spending the night in Portland we woke up and lazily got ourselves ready for the drive to Seaside. It was really nice not having a specific time table in mind for this trip. So often I'm constantly thinking ahead of "can we fit in X before her nap and Y after her nap or are we going to have a super cranky child on our hands". With our vacation plans being "do what we feel like when we feel like with most of our time on the beach" it was a lot easier for me to just sit back and enjoy our adventure.
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| We were both pretty surprised when Abby fell asleep 15 minutes into our car trip. Granted, she'd had a late evening (and early morning) but I figured she'd struggle to stay up. |
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| The very first thing we did when we got to the coast was visit Moe's in Cannon Beach. It's been years since I've had the clam chowder bread bowl at Moe's so I was really looking forward to its yumminess. Nate got an order of oysters and said it was the best he'd tasted in months! Abby enjoyed a few bites of her fish but got a bigger kick out of trying to feed everyone else. :-) |
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| Grandpa forgot how fast Abby can run. :-) When Abby was finished with lunch Grandpa took her down to the beach to play in the sand. He glanced down at her, glanced up at a bird, and when he'd glanced down again she was racing for the water. By the time he caught up with her the waves were rushing up to land and he got soaked while holding her in his arms and running back to dry land! |
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| We settled into our rooms and Dave and Linda took an afternoon nap while Nate, Abby, and I went to explore the beach. Talk about a different experience from the last beach we were on in California. Instead of a life threatening climb down a rope assisted trail we gently walked down a few steps and were met with white sand and people! Abby found the swings entertaining for a while until... |
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| She discovered the kites people were flying. We also brought a kite, but it was a sad, sad idea of what a kite should be. It was a target $1 special and basically went up two feet in the air, swooped, and then headed straight back to the sand. Nate must have spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to fix the kite so that it could fly before... |
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| Abby grabbed his attention for some sand castle building! |
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| Soon we were joined by Dave and Linda for some additional beach fun. |
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| Abby had a blast picking up litter on the beach and running it over to the big dumpsters. My little hippie. :-) |
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| As well as being "so tall" on Grandpa's shoulders. Nate and I really thought she'd get a blast out of playing in the sand but she had more fun trying to fly kites, playing with the various rocks she found, and people watching. I think this is because we have a really nice sandbox at home and so she can play sand castles whenever she likes. Oh, well. |
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| After an afternoon of running around on the beach she was exhausted. Not five minutes after pulling out of the parking lot to head to dinner and she'd passed out on us. |
Here's where our trip got "fun". On the ride up I'd gotten a little carsick (an affliction I more easily get since being pregnant with Abby) and never really got over the queasy stomach feeling. At dinner I was doing okay until the table next to us had their food brought to them and the smell just got to me. Keeping this G rated I eventually found myself needing to excuse myself from the table, got sick a few times, and came back to a table full of our food. Great. Nate recognized I wasn't feeling all that hot so he quickly scarfed down dinner then decided we'd head back to the hotel so if I felt ill again I'd be in an easier spot. I got back to the hotel and was actually feeling pretty good. So we decided to have a family swimming party in the jacuzzi tub in our room. Literally two minutes of sitting in the water and I rushed out to be sick again. And again. And again. It got to the point that I'd be cracking jokes at Nate, make a funny face, and rush off to the bathroom. Finally, all seemed to settle around the time Abby went down for bed. I honestly don't know if it was the car sickness, the new medication I'm taking, or just a weird alignment of stars but I've never experienced such an episode before. Total laughing and giggling moments and then a split second later so not feeling good. :-) Thankfully it was only that night and the next morning I was back in top vacation mode!
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| After a yummy but long (seriously, ever notice how dining out can take FOREVER with a small child) we decided to visit the SeaSide Aquarium. Our first stop was to feed the sea lions. Abby had a great time dropping fish pieces through the cage, but was NOT a fan when they clapped for food. Every time she'd jump and look at me like "what the heck was that sound?!" |
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| After the sea lions we went into the main park of the aquarium to look at all the sea creatures. She was very excited to see the fish. |
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| Until they got to be a bit too big for her liking. There was an eel in one of the tanks that she refused to go near because it was "too scary". She'd cutely say that while patting my arm like she was comforting me since she didn't want me to get scared from the too big fish. :-) |
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| This octopus was huge once he really showed himself by moving around the tank. |
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| Finally, at the end of the visit to the aquarium she'd worked up enough nerve to enjoy the Touch Tanks. She touched a mussel, a hermit crab, and a sea sponge. I was very proud that she did this as, when we first entered the aquarium, she practically climbed my back to get away from them. |
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| On our way home from SeaSide I had a car full of sleeping beauties. |
Our trip to SeaSide was a short, but wonderful trip. Since we'd never been before we weren't sure what to expect (or even what to see and do) but we stumbled into a nice visit. One that we'd like to do again for a longer duration. I have a sorority sister who posts wonderful pictures of her kids enjoying SeaSide so my hope is that the next time we plan a trip down there our two families can get together so they can show us their favorite SeaSide spots! All in all a good time was had!
