Adventure to the Pacific Ocean

We couldn't really feel like we had fully arrived in Oregon without making it to the Pacific Ocean.  That was the selling point when we told the kids we were moving here.  So after a few last unpacking tasks this Saturday we loaded up in Evan's new pickup and headed to the coast...it was pretty light-hearted...aka we weren't super prepared and yet it turned out to be one of those perfect days that you hope you (and your kids) will always remember.  We headed to Sunset Bay and spent a long time just wiggling our toes in the sand, and catching the waves in our McDonald's cups (note to self--bring shovels and sand buckets next time).  Caleb and Joshi diverted themselves grandly collecting what they called the (death collection)...aka bits and pieces of dead crabs.  It was grand.
Having only packed some extra sweaters we found ourselves in a predicament...I got my shoes soaked and the boys pants were soaked (note to self--take extra clothes next time) .  Did that stop our adventure, oh no...we just found a local garage sale and bought some pants and flip flops for a couple quarters and headed off to find some sea lions.  And we found them! The sound they make in that mass hoard is amazing and the boys loved that...though they wanted to see whales too...we have to save some adventures for another day though.
We had planned to build a fire by the  beach and have a hot dog roast but it was misting something fierce so we scratched that plan and headed to town to find a fantastic "hole-in-the-ground" type spot where we could get some great seafood.  We stopped and bought some fresh salmon and saw huge piles of oyster shells too.  When we passed a sweet little restaurant named "Captain's Choice" we declared "this is the place" and parked  (Caleb wanted to know what happened to the whole "eating in a hole" idea because he liked that plan)  The boys enjoyed their first fish 'n chips and Evan and I enjoyed some fish too (just for the "halibut")...actually I had some AMAZING clam chowder and Cod, Evan had Halibut.  We headed home and had a lovely drive along the Umpqua river and saw a bunch of elk (the biggest bull elk I've ever seen) and we were all exhausted when we arrived back home.
We had so much fun and look forward to doing an adventure revisit any time anyone wants to come see us :)