Living and Learning; Together: December 2017

I am still adjusting to having a "normal" schedule as opposed to a nurse's schedule. One of the schedule changes that I am getting used to is actually having every holiday off; as well as sometimes having "extra" days off being added. I did not realize until about 1-2 weeks before Thanksgiving that I would also have the day after Thanksgiving off. Wendy, as soon as she discovered this, booked us an Airbnb at Coos Bay, Oregon. We needed to visit the beach!

As you can see Coos Bay is not right next door. The kids are learning to travel well, but at times still get a little stir-crazy. During one of these times, Wendy caught a park out of the corner of her eye. The kids played, climbed, jumped, until they exhausted themselves enough to get back into the car. It also allowed Wendy and I the first opportunity to play with our new 70-200 zoom lens.

State Parks

Just north of Coos Bay are three state parks right next to each other. The state parks have a little bit of something for everyone. We experienced all three.

Sunset Bay State Park: Beach surrounded by sea cliffs and trails
Shore Acres State Park: Coastal area with formal gardens
Cape Arago State Park: Headland with ocean views and cove trails

Cape Arago

The farthest north state park is Cape Arago. This is the area to find lots of sea animals such as sea lions, otters, and seals. There is one island that we saw that hundreds of sea lions hung out at. There is also a lighthouse in this area. We did not make it to the lighthouse.

Sea lions and a sailboat

Forest trail down to a cove

I call this my "stock photo"

Shore Acres State Park

Shore Acres state park originally belonged to a rich family. The family did not have good luck with their mansions. During the time they owned the land they built two mansions overlooking the ocean. Both mansions ended up being destroyed by fires. The mansions did not survive, but the botanical gardens did.

Taking a snack break

No mansion, but a good view

Spencer as always likes to climb

Vacationing is thirsty work

The botanical gardens are the "Temple Square" of Coos Bay. Each year they string thousands of lights on the plants. They also have lights in the shapes of animals, some of which are animated. (Like they have at Zoo lights in Salt Lake City). There are also Christmas trees created by community organizations. We enjoyed walking through it.

At first we felt a little sad that we mistimed and arrived at dusk instead of night. We could see the lights but not as brightly as if it would have been dark. Later, as we talked to the curators in the visitor's center we discovered that we may have timed it perfectly. The night before, and they expected the same to happen the day we went, people waited two and a half hours in order to get in to see the lights. The park rangers had to keep the park open an hour past the normal close time in order to let the people who had waited for a long time to at least have 30 minutes to see the lights.

Santa taking a bath

Andrew is learning to love bird watching

Pretending to be "Mommy" using Wendy's coat

Sunset Bay State Park

We decided to go to Sunset Bay State Park to end the day. There may have been a fear that if we started there that Wendy and Marsha may not have been able to make me move along to any of the other parks. This is a valid concern. I do love the ocean and beaches.

On the beach we took the opportunity to take our shoes off, roll up our pants, and go wading. Andrew and Cameron took a different approach. Andrew initially ran away from all of the waves whenever they got close. Later, he ran into the waves. Cameron, on the other hand, got hit by one wave without his shoes and then immediately went to put his shoes on. "Too cold!" This did not prevent him from grabbing a stick and "hitting" each wave as it came in. Spencer loved the sand and watching the waves.