Newport & Silver Creek Falls

When we moved from Reno, a lot of friends gave us 2 years max before we moved back. That was 5 years ago and we are more rooted than ever. You might think we would take advantage of living so close to the coast, and head over at least once an month, right? Wrong! Life seems to get in the way of life. Our friends Chris and Monica came up with their boys and broke us out of the mundane rut that we'd made for ourselves and got us back into fun mode.



Newport was on the list of things to do, and after a little late start in the day we headed over. By the time we got there everyone was pretty hungry so our first stop was the Rogue Brewery. A couple of complimentary beer samplers and some good food was a good start to the afternoon. We walked the shops up and down the street, popping in and out of the cool nic-nac stores. We watched a guy tossing little fish to the seaguls. The kids did well with all the walking we did.
We found the sea lions all basking in the sun on floating docks so we stopped to watch and listen to their banter. Jorryn's crock mysteriously got torn from his foot and tossed down to the sea lions just as we were leaving to go see a "show". He screamed bloody murder so that pretty much every one in Newport knew something was askew. Jer and Chris were off buying the tickets and Jami was trying not to laugh and to calm down her frantic son who wouldn't leave w/out his shoe. They just happen to be his favorite pair. Dad came to the rescue! Jer went and found a fisherman who lent him his fishing pole so that he could make the catch of the day. Chris caught most of the drama on video so we can relive the momentous event. Click here to see it. It is truly priceless, especially to one little boy. I just thought of a quote for this, "Who throws their shoe, honestly?"
We soon headed off to find some tide pools so all us kids could explore. It is amazing how being chased by waves can be so exhilarating. Jami had the forethought to think it would be very cool on the beach so she brought jackets but didn't realize there would be soaking wet kids at the end of the day who'd need a change of clothes. She must not come to the beach much! Since we had naked kids wrapped in jackets we weren't able to go in and sit at a restaurant to enjoy our much anticipated clam chowder. We took it to go and drove home. All in all it was a great day!
The next day we headed for Silver Creek Falls. Definitely one of the best sights to see in Oregon, but maybe not the greatest idea when toting small kids. Chris got a good work out carrying Brice most of the way, but I'm sure he was relieved that he worked off all the clam chowder from the night before. We only made 2 of the 10 falls but we were ready to hike back to the car. When we got home we decided that we needed a fire pit and Jer and Chris went down to the creek to get some rocks. I'm not sure what happened but Chris ended up with the shovel and the big job of digging our fire pit. He was expecting to find some soft dirt since Jami had told him how the trees fall down here with a light wind (if you've lived in Reno you know what I"m talking about). Our part of Oregon has been unusually dry this summer so the ground was hard. We love our fire pit and think Chris is awesome! After some s'mores we headed off to bed.




Jami left for Reno the next day to see her Mom, sister, nephews, and niece on a last minute whim sos-to-speak. Jer took the Robbs geocaching on their last day here in Lebanon.