"Camping" (Day 3)

The weather seemed to let up on Friday, November 7th. As soon as breakfast was done and Dad unhitched the truck, we set out for a drive further south on Hwy 101. Our first stop...Seal Rocks, which was really just an overlook spot. We checked out the view and whatdaya know? There were actually seals out on those rocks. Imagine that. Only the trained eyes (i.e.--not Cooper's) could make them out...because the seals were very well camouflaged. But it was still pretty cool. I still can't get over how BIG those suckers were.

As we continued down the highway, I noticed signs for the Heceta Head Lighthouse. I couldn't pass that up. By the time we got there, the sun was not only out, but shining! It was beautiful as we headed up the 1/2 mile trail to the lighthouse.

So far, I've seen 4 of the 9 Oregon coast lighthouses. In four years time, I guess that isn't too shabby.

When we were quiet, we could actually hear the barking of the sea lions from the Sea Lion Caves near the base of the cliffs south of us. We were headed there after we ate lunch in Florence. Our next stop....MO'S...to try their famous clam chowder. It was pretty tasty. We all enjoyed the fuel stop and the large portions of food.

In this picture, we are beginning our descent to the elevator to take us 200 feet down to the Sea Lion Caves. Behind Jared you will see Heceta Head Lighthouse on his left and the light keeper's house to the right where we had been before lunch.

I love this picture of Karcyn. It's not fair she can look so cute without even trying. She loves anything that flowers...even weeds.

Wow, that cave was so cool!! I've never seen anything like it before. The sea lions were actually outside, but we got to see them eating from an outdoor viewing platform before we went underground. It was really incredible to be down there and to read about the history of the cave and sea lions. We weren't allowed to take flash photography of the cave, so we just took pictures of ourselves :)

I was so proud of myself. From one of the cave "windows", I timed the rotating lens from the lighthouse just right and got a picture of it beaming towards me (even with a delay on my camera). Okay...I admit it. It took me a couple of tries. But only a couple.

A quick pic of the kiddos by the sea lion sculpture before heading back to camp at South Beach.

It was still daylight and the weather was decent when we got back to our campsite so we decided to visit the beach again. Grandpa found a big fuzzy caterpillar crawling on the sand to show Karcyn.

The boys had a blast waiting for the waves to come and get them.

And then Karcyn rubbed sand in her eyes and the party was over. Jared flushed her eyes out as best he could but feared there were still grains of it he couldn't get. Her eyes were red and puffy and she kept batting at them as they continued to irritate her. We had some eye drops to give her (her right eye in particular) but getting her in a position to do it and prying her eye open as she forced all of her mighty strength against us was another story. (How is it that kids 1/4 your size can be stronger than 3 adults??) After we managed to give her some eye drops we put her to bed. But she woke up 2 different times crying from the irritation. We only hoped she hadn't scratched her cornea. If it was scratched, her eye would hurt and bother her as if she still had sand in it, even if she didn't, until the cornea healed. How miserable, especially for a child. After the second time she woke up, clearly in distress, we wised up and my dad and Jared administered a priesthood blessing to her. She slept soundly the rest of the night and didn't act bothered by her eye after that.