Oregon Coast - part 3.

On Tuesday morning, I was still sick in bed.  But Auntie Angie and Grandma took Clara down to the beach to check out the tide pools.  They saw tons of orange and purple starfish, and sea anemones which Clara lovingly called "sea Emmys", and I think they may have seen some sea urchins too.  They had a ball.  Clara touched a lot of creatures.  She's not afraid!

Once they returned from the beach, I woke up from my 20 hour nap and cleaned up and felt a whole lot better.  So we decided to drive to the town lighthouse and do a tour.  Sadly, we were all wearing open toed shoes, so we couldn't climb the 12 foot ladder to the top.  So we just looked around down below, and Clara got a cute souvenir, Crabby, a little stuffed crab.  Thanks Grandma!

We wandered a little more around Old Town Bandon, visited the museum and learned all about Bandon's history.  There were two fires in the early 1900s, town industry history included artifacts from cranberries, blueberries, fishing, (among other things...I was chasing a 2 year old around begging her to keep her hands in her pockets!).  The museum also had some pretty cool ship artifacts and military stuff.  They also had artifacts from the indigenous people of Bandon and the surrounding area.  It was a nice little tribute to the town, and we all liked learning a little more about the place we were calling home for the week.

Tuesday afternoon, we also visited the Bandon creamery.  The original Bandon creamery was bought by Tillamook, and was closed in Bandon long ago.  There was some bad blood between Tillamook and the way the people of Bandon wanted the creamery run, or something!  But in the last little bit, they've opened a new Bandon creamery with delish cheese curds, ice cream, and other sauces.  It was fun to visit their gorgeous facility, watch the employees stuffing plastic bags with cheese curds that we ended up sampling and buying right outside those windows, and Clara enjoyed a bowl of milk chocolate chip ice cream, which may be her new favorite!

We headed back to Steve and Mary's house for the evening, and had a scallop dinner.  Yum!  After dinner, Mary and Clara started a little nightly tradition of having a dance party.  Clara loved it and learned all sorts of cool "vintage" dances like the monkey, the pony, the twist, among others.  Don't be offended by my use of the word "vintage" to describe those dances (Mom).

We then watched Bridesmaids, because some of us in the group hadn't seen it.  That movie cracks me up, and everyone enjoyed it.  Since the family had seen skunks the night before, we all wanted to flash on the outside lights before bed to see if any creatures decided to pay a visit that night.  Well sure enough!  There was an opossum outside enjoying the fallen bird seed!  Sick!  They gross me out!  But it made the night exciting!

Stay tuned for more from our trip in part 4, tomorrow!