Oregon Coast

Sunday we made it to the coast and wonderfully fresh, pollen-free air. First stop was the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport with their cool exhibit on oddities, including one of my favorites, the lion fish. Another oddity was how they designed the exhibits. See the 'grass' in this tank? It's hand-blown glass! Almost everything in the exhibits was hand-made of glass instead of the usual plasticized stuff. Beautiful.

We spent a little time - it was cold, windy and threatening to rain - in historic Newport, a working fish-processing town. Many of the buildings were painted with sea scenes, including this one by the artist Wyland. Newport also has two lighthouses - Yaquina Head, from which you can see this great bridge - and Yaquina Bay, a short distance up the coast. Since there are no covered bridges along the coast, we're planning to see as many lighthouses as we can find on our way south.

We didn't get very far, distance-wise today. We found a promising hotel in the little town of Yachats (thanks for the tip, Teena!) and pulled in about 5:00. See the last 3 windows on the bottom of the closest building? That's our room. And this is our view. The ocean is literally just a few steps away. I brought my wheel inside and spun while watching the waves and waiting for the sun to set. Not a bad place to spend the night!