Oregon Coast: July 21st

The morning of July 21st we headed straight for the beach.  The main reason why?  At Depot Day the day before we had learned that Agate Beach, near where we had been camping, had a piece of a dock on the beach which had washed up on shore from the tsunami in Japan.  So, naturally we had to go take a look.  It was actually our best day of the trip as far as the weather went, and we enjoyed the sun on the beach.

We saw yet another beautiful view of the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

And Ellie loved seeing an "Eledoctor!" as it flew over the beach.

She LOVED digging in, playing with, and throwing the sand.

And eventually we did get her all the way down the beach to where the dock was.  It was pretty stinking impressive.  Even Ellie enjoyed being at the dock - if only to play in all the puddles around it.

And the crazy part was it was all cement and rebar, not at all what we expected for a dock.

This was the only place, on a wheel on the side, where we found any indication of the dock being Japanese.  

And I just loved the way these giant wheels looked.

A little size reference.  Don't mind the fact that there were signs painted on the dock all over saying not to climb on it.

After getting our fill of the dock, we headed back to the water.  Where it was our third day at the beach, and warmer, Ellie finally decided she liked having her feet in the water - despite how cold it was.  So, I took her out to enjoy having the small waves come up on our feet.

And then we suddenly got a wave that wasn't so small...  This picture also disproves Steve's earlier stories from the beach last year that I would ever simply abandon our child to the water.

And here was how we looked after I scooped a wet Ellie up and got the both of us out of the water.  She was still quite happy to walk in the water after, so no damage done.

After Agate Beach we headed to check out The Devil's Punchbowl.  Apparently at high tide this is actually full of water, but we didn't have the time to spend waiting for the water to come in.  It was still really neat though.

If you look closely in this second picture, there is a person down there which shows how big the punchbowl really was.  There are supposed to be some amazing tunnels in the rock to the water too, but this is also a fairly dangerous area - go figure!

We also headed back to Boiler Bay since we spent all our time there the day before sitting in the car letting Ellie nap as opening and closing car doors will wake her.  We never did get great pictures of the waves breaking on the rocks (the reason for the name) but it was pretty.

And we had decided after seeing another Mo's at the Devil's Punchbowl that rather than grabbing lunch at a cheap fast food place on the coast, we would enjoy another meal at Mo's before heading home.  So, we hit the Lincoln City Mo's as we started back up the coast.

And Ellie once again thoroughly enjoyed their chowder - as did I.

After lunch it was sadly time to head back towards home so we could get ready for church the next day.  But, we had a fabulous little family vacation and always love time on the coast.  One of our favorite parts about where we live is going to the coast on these little jaunts.  We love the Oregon Coast!  Beautiful scenery, family time, wonderful beaches, and good eats - who could ask for more?