Woke up this morning to a clear blue sky and this hot bright thing poking through the blinds! Such a nice surprise. Similar to yesterday, we did a bunch of work in the morning, and then headed out for a late breakfast and a little exploring.
Today’s destination was the town of Seaside.
It’s been ages since we’ve been to Seaside. We grabbed some food at the Firehouse Grill (where “late breakfast” didn’t turn into lunch because they serve breakfast until 3!) and then walked down to the beach.
We decided to check out the Seaside Aquarium today. The Seaside Aquarium has been open (in this same spot) since 1937.
The building was constructed in 1924, and was originally a saltwater bath house and swimming pool called the “Seaside Baths Natatorium”. The natatorium closed in the early 1930s, underwent major renovations, and in 1937 opened as the Seaside Aquarium. Here’s an early pic of the building:
The aquarium experience was better than we’d expected. As you enter the building, there’s a pool off to your left where maybe a dozen harbor seals hang out waiting to splash water onto the guests be fed by the guests from small trays of herring pieces. For two bucks you can get your own tray of herring (comes in a red/white checked take-out dish, very similar to what you get fish & chips in, for example, so pay attention). Anyway, I thought the whole “seal feeding” gimmick was going to be obnoxious, and it was…a little bit. But it was also kinda fun. The seals work hard to get your attention and are pretty good at clapping, barking, splashing, and looking cute so that you’ll throw some fish their way.
One seal got an eensy bit impatient, however, and could pull some pretty big water with those flippers…throwing it directly at the guests, right through the fence (no glass). Kinda makes you NOT want to give that particular seal a treat, but hey, it apparently works for him.
Anyway, there are a bunch of tanks with cool fish and anemones and eels and other neat things in ’em. Here’s a closeup of grumpy wolf eel:
This octopus was my favorite though:
Its eyes were closed and you could watch (close up in this open, no-touch tank) its breathing. We could look straight down into its gills as they opened and closed, and as water pushed out of the funnel/siphon (the tube on the left, near the “neck” of the octopus in the photo). It was super cool. (Would have been cooler had the octopus been awake and climbing around the tank, but we’ll take what we can get!)
Still sunny outside!
Walking back through town:
From the bridge that crosses over the river at Broadway Street, we could see a bunch of pedal boats shaped like giant swans…which was quite a fantastic image (just google it, you’ll see what I mean). They were all clumped together at the dock, but I had only my wide wide lens with me, we were too far away, and I apparently didn’t want the photo badly enough (but now I wish I’d made the effort).
On our drive back down to Nehalem, we pulled over and got a couple of nice shots back toward town.
Our campground is down there somewhere, hidden behind the dunes:
We got back to camp and took off on our bikes for a nice ride out to the boat launch and beach…a little over 5 miles. And guess what? It’s still sunny!!!
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