Mini-Vacation to the Beautiful Oregon Coast

We headed out on Wednesday morning; the girls, my mom and I for a mini-trip to the Oregon coast. Since I was driving through Eugene, a city I've never been to, after living in Oregon since 1992, I thought we should stop. It is, afterall, the home of the University of Oregon and a lot of hippies.

It is also the home to Blu, one of my wonderful blogging friends.

I called Blu to see if she would be able to meet us for lunch. She was free and she directed us to a lovely market place where we had a lovely lunch. Here is a picture of the girls in front of the fountain where we met.

We had a great time with Blu. She is even more lovely in person than she is on her blog or on IM.

The girls really liked her, although they were disapointed that her daughter Nicole was unable to join us. Hopefully next time. Blu lent DD#3 a blue clip for her ever-in-her-eyes bangs. We forgot to return it, (sorry Blu, I'll send you the dollar to replace it...) but DD#3 has worn it every day since and refers to it as the "Blu Clip." Blu, my mom, and I were all wearing black shirts. It was kind of funny. It is a little weird, but in a good way, to meet someone that you already have a "relationship" with on-line. This was my first experience, it was very cool.

After our lovely lunch, we headed out to Florence, Oregon on the coast. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, without a cloud in the sky, although it was a bit windy and chilly.
This was the view from our hotel:

We went out on the windy cold beach.

The girls found a star-fish on the beach.


At dinner, we all ordered PINK drinks. Mine and mom's were of course the adult version!

The next day, we headed out to the Dune Buggy rides. My mom had reserved us the adventure ride for five. Our driver's name was Dennis and he got us all loaded up in the Dune Buggy. We had no idea what to expect.

It was absolutely amazing.
This is the view from where we were, to where we were going to ride on the dunes.
When I imagined Dune Buggy riding, I was thinking we would be riding in ATV's along the coast on the sand. I had NO idea that these types of Dunes existed. It was so fucking cool.

Miles and miles and miles of sand dunes. It was like what you would see in a desert movie, without the heat!

Beautiful!

After our duning trip, we headed North on 101, which runs along the coast. We decided that we would go to Newport and visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium the next day.
Here we are at dinner at Mo's in Newport. They had a cool band playing during our visit there. Two of my girls tried clams for the first time; they liked them!

We arrived at the aquarium the next day:

We saw a lot of sea life. We liked the otters and the sea lions the best. DD#3 was obsessed with making sea lion sounds the rest of the day.

The girls also enjoyed the "touch pool" where they could touch starfish and sea aneonome.

The aquarium was featuring a sea turtle exhibit which was very fun.

On the way home, I stopped at this scenic view called Cape Foulweather.
It was lovely, as you can see:

Our final stop was at a lovely restaurant called the Dundee Bistro where we had a fabulous early dinner and incredible desserts. The waiter took our picture with our chocolate mousse cake and lavender infused creme brulee. Yum!

It was a LOVELY trip (aside from the news about my Pap,) and was just what I needed right now. I feel a bit better, although still quite numb from the week's events.

I'm glad I could share it with all of you.