Sea Lion Caves

My family’s Spring Break trip featured several visitations, including a car ride to go see the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon. Located south of Newport, this is home of the largest sea cave in the world, as can be seen from the picture below. I think I also remember reading that the Sea Lion Caves feature the largest sea lion habitat for the creatures off sure.

The visitors building itself was a pretty cool sight do to the fact that it is built on a cliff right next to the ocean. I also learned that whale sightings are common to see from this location, when the whales are migrating up to Alaska from Mexico.

The actual journey down to the caves is taken by an elevator in which you plummet over 200 feet. The actual caves we weren’t able to go into, due to the fact that it would disturb the hundreds of sea lions that lounge there. It was still a cool sight though, and is something worth visiting if you ever get the chance.

Once we pulled up to the center, this was the sign that greeted us, letting us know of our arrival.

Although the lighting wasn’t good, and the photo quality is poor, you can make out the many sea lions that were laying against the rocks. This picture doesn’t even show how big the cave was either. Imagine each of those animals are 500 pounds, and it will give you an idea of size. 

It was a nice dry day, and the coast line looked great from our view point.

This was the entrance to the cave–-at least I think it was.

Another shot of the cave. We were behind a wire fence to let the sea lions have privacy.

Before the elevator was built and the shaft excavated, people had to take a long set of stairs to see the wonder. Talk about a long walk.

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Spring Break arrived and my family decided to spend a few days touring the more central part of the Oregon coast. Although we live on the coast, we don’t go down south too often, and decided that we would take advantage of the time that we got off from Spring Break. Most of our time was spent in either Newport of Lincoln City.

One of the places that we made sure to visit was the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We visited it a few years ago, but it had been awhile, and so we decided to visit it again. It is a cool aquarium and is rated in the top 10 aquariums by USA Today. I snapped a couple of pics of the place.

There was a building that you could go into with a name along the lines of “In to the Deep.” It featured three giant tanks—that you walk right through. From this picture you can see the tunnels that you could walk through. Even the floor featured some glass. It’s pretty amazing to watch marine life swim all around you.

The tanks even featured some sharks. Not Great Whites, but they still had some that you wouldn’t want to be swimming with.

From here you can sort of get an idea of what the tunnel was like to be in. This was a sting ray swimming above my head.

The aquarium feature a bunch of exotic fish as well. 

This isn’t your typical pet fish, though it would be cool to have one of these as a pet. 

  

I found Dory, now only Nemo is left to look for. I keep forgetting what movie their from. :-)

Oregon Responder Tour

Recently I had the chance to go visit the Oregon Responder with my Venturing Crew. It one of few select ships that are sent out to clean up the massive oil spills in the ocean that often make the news. I didn’t realize that the ship for the Oregon coast area was situated in Astoria.

It was a cool ship to tour, and isn’t you average boat. It is equipped with many special features to help aid it in its tasks. I decided to take a few pictures of the things that I saw. Below are the pics.

The boat had two cranes that could be used on board.

There was a boat that could be sent out for smaller items. It had a unique rail system that it was on. Because of this, it just slid off the boat and into the water.

As technology has advanced, it has slowly made its way over to the marine world. The new information computer shown right here is one such example.

A sign the sums up what this ship is all about.

The big hose and air piston boom used to suck up the oil. It was night when we toured the ship so that is the reason for the dark. 

Every ship must have a eating area, no matter what type it is.

 

One of the giant generators used to give electricity to the ship. 

The star of the show, the giant oil consuming hose, all coiled up.

The Picture

When I had my cousins over for Thanksgiving we got to go to the beach, seeing as most people don't have the privelige of going there often. My cousin is currently taking a digital photo class for school, and so this was the perfect oppurtunity to get some quality pics including one with me in it. I have to say, I was a natural for the camera.

This was the star photo of me, with a great backdrop.

This was another good photo, with the shadow of cousin to catch the eye.

Oregon sunsets are a photographers dream, and you can see why.

The car tracks had a neat effect on this picture. (Oregonians can drive on their beaches :-). )

got Snow? We do.

We got a good amount snow over the weekend from an Artic chill. For most people, snow is not that big deal. Of course, most people don't live in one of the top two rainiest cities in the U.S. either. So, out of pure joy, I had to snap a couple of pictures of the snow that we got, and show of the best snow of the year from Astoria, Oregon.

The snow actually stuck, which doesn't happen a lot with a warm humid climate.

When you see the snow, it sort of makes you think about what a "White Christmas" on the coast would actually look like.

Snow is definitely a nice change from the usual December rain.

4A Football Champions

My high school (Astoria High School), has recently experienced a lot of success in the athletic programs, with strong showings in almost every sport, especially this season. Last week, I had the opportunity to go watch the football team win their first state championship in 106 years. Talk about a long time. Below is a video from the game.

Astoria punctuates perfect season

Pumpkin Patch Trip - Sauve Island

This is completely old, about a month and a half, but I have just barely got around to posting these photos. Sometime in October, on a day off from school my family went up to Sauve Island in Portland. It is known for have some of the best land to grow crops with in the area. Because of this, there are numerous farms, including several large pumpkin patches. So we decided to check it out, and take up the challenge of going through a rather large maze. A couple of pics from the trip are below.

The corn maze was long, and rather muddy.

This picture doesn't even begin to describe the size of the pumpkin patch.

This was an aeriel view of the maze, the design changes each year.