Seaside Aquarium

Seaside is a very small town with a big heart for summer tourists. They have a LOT to offer in the way of family activities, shopping and fabulous scenery, and an aquarium one of the things on the to-do list. Seaside Aquarium is one of the oldest aquariums in the west, started in 1937. It's also very small. When you walk in, it's a little dismaying to see how little space the seals have. They are in a narrow rectangular pool and the public stands right in front of a metal fence that hangs over them to feed them.  You basically throw the food through the fence holes. There is another pool for them that you can't see and that they use, but I couldn't help feeling how confined they were in such a small space for their play area. According to the aquarium, the seals choose to be in front of the public instead of being off in a different pool.

Admission is 7.00 for adults. According to the brochure, the seals have developed their own tricks and vocals to get you to feed them, they are not trained. The day I visited, they must have been full from a lot of visitors feeding them, as they weren't doing much of anything. (They are also regularly fed by the staff.) There were two baby seals that were adorable! You can feed the seals if you don't mind picking up the fish. Ew-w-w-w! Not me! I'm a wuss when it comes to handling fish, I have no idea why!

Another room holds many tanks of interesting sea creatures but the room is dark and dreary. Seaside Aquarium is really showing its age and needs a facelift. Despite all that, I still enjoyed seeing the seals and the octopus in an open tank. The brochure for the aquarium makes some convincing arguments for the successful breeding program they have there. They were the first aquarium in the world to successfully breed harbor seals in captivity and some of their seals are fourth generation captive born animals. The aquarium is inspected twice annually and they have a trained vet who makes monthly checkups.

I guess seeing all the creatures in the wild has made me a little sad now to see ones in captivity in a less than modern setting...but it's still a great place for school kids and others who don't get the opportunity to see things in the wild, like this ugly guy. I forgot what he is!

Well, instead of this ugly guy above, let's leave you with a photo of something better....Aw-w-w-w, too cute!

One more thing...We would like to welcome our newest follower, Ellie Great from the Land Down Under, Australia! Ellie is a film director who works with children to develop their creativitiy through her organization, Pleiades. She also writes novels....Awesome! Hope you enjoy hearing about our travels, Ellie!  We'll see you on the road...We're gonna go looking for some beautiful scenery tomorrow or maybe just check out the Cannon Beach stores....

Sitting Pretty at Seaside, Oregon

We're at the Thousand Trails membership Seaside park here at Seaside, Oregon, for two weeks at the very low cost of three dollars a day. This great rate is figured in the cost of the 199.00 zone membership for the northwest coast that we purchased back in December at the RV show in Fort Meyers. It was a heckuva deal at the time. Normally, Thousand Trails memberships for zones (northwest, southwest, etc.) in the U.S. run $499.00 at the time of purchase. You get 30 days of "free" camping, then 3.00 a day thereafter, a max of 14 days in the park system, then one week out before you can go back into a membership park. For Thousand Trails, you have to make reservations in advance, you can't just drive into a park. So we're doing a little more advance planning than we are accustomed to lately. (Eldo likes to "wing it"!) Me, the nervous Nellie ("What if we get there and we can't get in? But it's going to be Father's Day weekend!") likes the organization of knowing that we've got a place and we don't have to scramble to find something as we are going further down the road than we intended, and one or both of us are getting stressed and crabby. (ME? Crabby? Never! says Eldo.) Says E..... ;-)

We really like this park. The sites are spacious and we picked 30 amp service with cable, sewer and water over 50 amp service, sewer and water with NO cable. They have pickleball courts, although they were just resurfaced and the lines need to be painted on them. The manager said they are supposed to paint the lines Friday. Woo-hoo! Maybe we'll get to play! But the manager also told us the contractor has taken three years to get the pickleball courts done. THREE YEARS!!?? That's ridiculous!  (Don't hold your breath, Sparky, says E.) Oh, well, I can definitely ride my bike for about three or four miles around the perimeter of the park on residential streets so I'm happy about that. And you can, too, Eldy!  (R-I-I-I-G-H-T!)

Astoria-Megler Bridge

This is a great location for branching off for day trips...Cannon Beach is 8 miles away to the south of us. There are state parks, Lewis and Clark historical sites, and the town of Astoria to explore. Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies and has some great things to see there.  I love cool bridges and Astoria has the longest truss span in America at the Astoria-Megler Bridge. It also has a mural decorated cement observation tower  that Sparky just HAS to see.

Seaside is where Lewis and Clark's expedition ended at the Pacific Ocean.

In the town of Seaside, there is a little aquarium where seals do all kinds of antics and routines to get you to feed them. There is a family fun park in the middle of town with a big carousel and lots of fun stuff for the kids or grandkids. There are the usual cute shops, boutiques and neat little restaurants. Seaside is where Lewis and Clark ended their journey as I mentioned and a statue marks the spot at the ocean's edge in town. We drove to the trail end just to see the "Turnaround" where people come in with their cars, check out the statue as they drive around and go back out, so we did just that.

This would have been a cool place to cruise in the day...but it looks pretty new....There's a "Muscle and Chrome" show this week in honor of all the gear heads and dads who like old cars. We checked that out today and here are some of the cool cars we saw...several were ones Eldy either had in his youth or WISHED he had!

And of course, Cannon Beach is also a well known destination for its great shops, boutiques, eating spots, and its famous trademark, Haystack Rock. We saw it from afar today, but we'll plan on getting closer and checking out the tide pools soon.  Beautiful weather today...The rainy days are becoming less and less and the sunshine is starting to kick in. Temperatures are in the sixties and creeping upwards a bit. Great weather!

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach