Today we went to the Oregon coast. Our drive took us through Corvallis than to Newport, which was our final destination. On our way through Corvallis my cousin drove us through a part of Oregon State by the football stadium just to give us a taste of the campus. Getting out of Corvallis we went through twisting roads lined with evergreen trees. The road was also very hilly. It was immediately apparent once we were near the coast. The salty air was noticeable in the air along with the extra traffic in the area. Corvallis and Eugene were supposed to be very warm today so many were beating the heat by going to the cooler coast.
Once we had got to Newport we drove through town and parked at a public parking lot so we could walk to the part of the town that was a long the coast. This part of the town was lined with many restaurants and fisheries. Originally we were going to find a restaurant, which was recommended to us by someone, but it had appeared the restaurant had since been closed and was taken over by another restaurant. Looking for another place to eat we walked to the other side of town where my cousin knew a restaurant he liked. As it turns out the restaurant he liked had since been relocated a few doors down and just by chance we stumbled upon it walking back to where his car was located.
We decided to stop into at the new location of this restaurant. This restaurant mostly specialized in different forms of fish and chips however they had many different seafood items. My cousin had gotten a grilled tuna dish, and I had got halibut salmon and chips along with a cup of clam chowder. I had paid for this meal in gratitude for my cousin allowing me to stay at his house for these few days.
After lunch we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which was located across the bay from where the restaurant was. We took a bridge across the bay, which was very tall – it kind of reminded me of the bay bridge in San Diego which takes you from downtown to Coronado Island across the bay. It is tall enough to allow larger boats to cross underneath without being a drawbridge that stops traffic. From the top of the bridge you could get nice views of the bay and the small town of Newport.
Arriving at the aquarium we paid for our tickets and first walked into a reptile enclosure that had turtles, snakes and other water reptiles. Besides the reptiles we saw the aquarium also had a great diversity of animals – they even had a bird atrium where we saw puffins and penguins. One section of the aquarium had glass-lined tunnels that allowed you to see the sea life above and around you. We walked through one of these tunnels that contained stingrays and sharks. It was thrilling seeing sharks and stingrays float just inches away from you!
We decided to head back to Eugene after the aquarium. We had originally planned to go to the beach after the aquarium but we decided it was too much to tackle in one day. I enjoyed the drive back to Eugene. We largely took the same route we originally took up to Newport. We listened to some of my cousin’s eclectic music, which I enjoyed. His music ranged from Jazz to Heavy Metal music. We stopped at the Safeway grocery store in Junction City to get some groceries before heading back to Eugene.
Once back in Eugene we spent some time out in the front yard of my cousins house just relaxing before we completed the evening again with cocktails and some video games. Tomorrow I am going back to California.
