Magnus meets the Ocean

On Wednesday, July 6th, we took a little trip to the beach. This was Magnus’s first trip to see the ocean. Usually when we go to the coast, we like to visit several spots, but with a baby in tow we thought we would take it slow and just visit one beach. We decided on a favorite of ours called Short Beach. This is just south of Cape Meares and north of Oceanside. It is not a very well known beach, so there are hardly ever any other people there. The hardest part it the long stair climb from the road.

A fun side note about our trip is that we came here for part of our Honeymoon five years ago. We have come other times in between, but now with an addition to our family it adds something more. 

It started as a very nice sunny day. We set up our chairs and had our supplies ready:

Magnus fell asleep by the time we were on the beach. I wanted to get a picture of him and the ocean, so here it is:

The tide was way out when we got there, so we had fun walking out to the rocks and seeing the fun animals.

After a short time of being on the beach the clouds started to roll in:

A cool tide pool:

And in the cool tide pool I found this sea slug. It was almost an inch long when moving. Those orange things on its back would wave around like anemone arms. It was very pretty. I also found some hermit crabs and fan worms.

Here is Magnus enjoying the sea air:

When we finally left the blue skies were gone:

We made a stop at the Cape Meares Lighthouse (it is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon). On a sunny day you can the ocean from here . At some places along the cliffs the clouds were thin enough to see the waves below. While we were looking we saw a sea lion swimming along. He looked like he was in a hurry.

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Five years ago we had our picture taken in front of the Octopus Tree, now it was Magnus’s turn.

He seemed to have a good time on the Cape.

On the the way back to Tillamook, we stopped to watch some bald eagles hunting over the bay. One even tried to snag a small sea bird on the water. After a short struggle on the water, the eagle lifted off with the bird in tow. But the bird was able to break free and fell back into the bay. It was intense to watch.

We finished our trip with the obligatory (and delicious) stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We sampled their cheese and got some ice cream. Yum! Other visitors thought it was quite adorable to see Magnus playing the part of the Tillamook farmer. Last time, it was Dave that got that privilege.

After the Tillamook Cheese Factory, we went to the Blue Heron Cheese shops. That is where we got to see the emu.

So, it was another good day on the Oregon Coast.