We decided to do something a little different on the day of our departure this time. I picked up Grammie and Laney and we all headed to see the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. At first I was concerned that we were arriving 40 minutes early for the museum but the gate ranger informed us the tide was out so we headed to Quarry Cove to see what we could find.
We climbed around the outside of the cove looking for things hiding in the crevices where we found lots of crabs and California mussels. There weren't many actual pools on this side so we headed to the cove next.
Grammie was already investigating and poking squishy things! Ryan and Laney played with a few hermit crabs and sea snails first. I spotted this heron looking for breakfast - probably for many of the same things we were looking for!
I spotted this guy in a deeper pool because the middle looked like a jalapeno slice. A program at one of Grammie's campgrounds talked about the tidepools so she told us this guy is green because he eats all the green kelp. The tide line for high tide was probably 40-50 feet past us and it seemed to still be going out. I was interested to watch this guy to see how he changed. When I looked at the outer part of his body with all the shell pieces attached I noticed a few more around him that must have been just a little bit higher up in the water because they were closed. See the guy at the right? I dismissed him earlier because I thought he was a rock. 
Grammie told us they suck in a lot of water and close up or flip upside down to survive the 6-12 hours they might be out of the water and in the sun. She confirmed this was true when she poked one and he spit water out at her!
We wanted to play around more in the tide pools but it was time for the museum to open so we made the trek back up the trail. Much like driving the coast I get in trouble for not looking where I'm going and checking out the view. We stopped here for a rest and to watch a few surfers braving the early morning cold.
Our first stop at the museum was the movie where we learned all about the history and difficult construction of the lighthouse back in the 1870s. Most of the supplies were delivered from San Francisco on ships that often met horrible weather or ship-breaking rocks. This was exactly the reason the lighthouse was being constructed.
The interpretive center was one of the best we'd seen. There was so much information about the history of the area, the lighthouse keepers, and the lighthouse. Laney and I are still fascinated by the life the keepers and their families led while tirelessly maintaining the lights for the safety of the ships. Some families had to plan 6 months in advance for the supplies and tools they would need. I can barely handle planning a week in advance!
There was a life-size replica of the lens in the museum that flashed the pattern for this lighthouse - 2 seconds on, 2 seconds off, 2 seconds on, 14 seconds off. I had no idea each lighthouse has a specific pattern but that completely makes sense for navigation! This fresnel lens was made in Paris and shipped over in the 250 pieces that made it up. It cost $11,000 back then - Wow!
The part of the museum my kids used to race to is now left untouched. I'm glad I took them when they were young because my tweens and teen scoffed at the idea of dress up and playing games the kids played back then. There was a dad dressing up with his kid though and I did catch Brayden using the stereoscope! Ryan did challenge me to a game of checkers but I'm guessing she wished she hadn't because I cremated her. She did really well at first so she knows she is getting better.
All this and we hadn't even seen the lighthouse yet! All the tours were full but I wasn't as interested in climbing it as I was just seeing it. They'd torn down the lighthouse keeper's quarters back in the 80s and that's what interests us the most. And as fearless as she is, Ryan isn't too keen on climbing too high. The lighthouse and the grounds were lovely.
We even were able to take some time and identify some of the birds in the area that we don't have at home. This rock was one of about seven that were completely covered in birds. We saw cormorant, murre, pigeon guillemot, and of course gull. We tried to find an oyster catcher but no luck.
This lovely morning put us on the road late to Portland but after navigating some wicked downtown traffic we finally made it to a bookstore I've wanted to visit since college. The kids had been looking forward to visiting since the beginning of the trip and mean old mom only gave them about an hour to look around. That's perfectly okay though because we still ended up walking out with a bag full of books!Our stop at the bookstore put us right on time to leave the city of Portland with the rest of the rush hour traffic. After inching along for about 45 minutes Google notified me of a quicker route. Yes please! I'm not sure if it was quicker necessarily but we were moving so it was definitely better. And it just so happened to be Oregon's historic scenic highway 30 that hugged the Columbia River Gorge. We had plans to stop all along this road the next day but we couldn't resist a waterfall called Horsetail Falls located right on the road!
We arrived at our site to a sign saying there was no water so once we were set up we headed straight to Grammie's spot to cook dinner. We made plans for the next day and said our goodnights. Both our sites were situated next to train tracks and the interstate (Grammie's a little closer than mine) so we decided we weren't going to get much sleep this night.
