Oregon- Seaside Aquarium, Hug Point, Short Sand Beach, Cannon Beach

One of the most disappointing things about where we were staying was the lack of wildlife!  It was literally everywhere last year.  The only thing on the beach was the occasional broken sand dollar.  Don't get me wrong, long flat clean beaches have their appeal.  When the weather is warm, they are the most fun at which to swim.  And we enjoyed it for that, but I was missing the sea lions all over!  We were told you can feed the seals at the little aquarium just down the promenade from our hotel so we decided to try that out.  It was really fun!  The seals are a riot.  They do what they can to get you to give them the food.  Splashing the water, barking.  Our favorite was this one that was laying on his side partially in the water on the ramp, and he was slapping his tummy.  It was hilarious.  But efficient.  I could've watched them for hours.

(This was the first time all my kids had to wear masks.  They had just been hanging out at home or at sports, other than the girls at theater camp.  They did fine though, no big deal.)

I didn't have any expectations for the rest of the aquarium.  It was one room with a bunch of small tanks.  But we spent quite a bit of time enjoying all the little creatures.  We got to touch starfish and hermit crabs.  My fav is the octopus.  Always.

We all cringed as these crabs just climbed over the top of these fish.  It looks like it would hurt!

 After the aquarium, we had to check out the candyman.  The kids couldn't stop asking.  It did not disappoint. (Okay, actually I didn't really love the salt water taffy, but I appreciate the creativity in the flavors).

Just a few of the landmarks right by our resort.  See the sand creation?!

When it was close to low tide, we headed to Hug Point.  It was a state park on our list from recommendations.  The little caves were cool to explore.  But I was still disappointed that there was not much life.  I wanted to see starfish and sand dollars!  We did end up finding a bunch of broken sand dollars as we got further down the beach.  It would be a really nice swimming beach, if it were warmer.

From there we went to Short Sand beach which is another one recommended.  There was a short hike to get to this one.  I love the forest area!

Only a tiny bit to explore.  Kylee got bored and cold and just sat in the sand.  Sadie and Kaden wanted to play in the waves.  Kids...

We drove past this little overlook and decided to see what there was to see.  The coast is so pretty here!

We passed Cannon Beach on the way back so we decided to stop.  I had planned on making another trip to hang out at Cannon for awhile a different day, but we were there so we just stopped.  It looks like a really nice beach and the town is much less ghetto than Seaside, lol.  We did have to park a few blocks away at public parking in order to get to the beach, which is annoying.

Whenever we travel, especially somewhere with fresh seafood, I want to eat new, yummy foods all the time.  I'm annoyed when we have to stop at a boring fast food restaurant.  But that often ends up getting complicated because the kids would rather just have boring fast food.  I found a place that was highly rated and had king crab in Cannon so Ryan and I decided to share one for our dinner.  It was a little complicated with getting it to-go.  We didn't have anything to crack it, lol.  So Ryan took it back into the little restaurant (that was more of a fast casual joint) and cracked it all over and then brought it back for me.  It was messy and kind of a pain but it was sure yummy!  The problem with being out and about all day is that we eventually run out of water and food and everyone gets miserable.  We have to track down bathrooms, etc.  But we somehow all survived.  And I was happy snacking on crab all the way home.