New Year's Eve (day) at the Beach

It's New Year's Eve day, 2001, 9:00 a.m. and we're on the way to the coast. Mary said I hadn't taken her to the coast all year and it's one of her favorite places to go. I just couldn't let her have that to "hold against" me sometime in the future (not that she would)!

It was a little overcast and there was a little drizzle as we left. We had breakfast at home and were looking forward to lunch at the beach. We drove straight to the Newport Oregon Aquarium. The closer we got to the beach the warmer and sunnier it was. By the time we parked the car at the Aquarium, it was about 11:00. We didn't even wear our coats. It was probably about 55 to 60 degrees (a lot colder at home). We really enjoyed the new Shark exhibit where you walk through a transparent tunnel and can see sharks above and below. Our only complaint was that it was quite dark in the tunnel. I'm guessing that the sharks don't like a lot of light. We went through all of the exhibits fairly quickly, then went to lunch at the original Mo's in the old part of Newport. They really do have great clam chowder!

After lunch, we drove up the coast toward Lincoln City stopping at Agate Beach to walk out to the water. Considering what a nice day it was, the waves were pretty impressive! We watched people playing in the surf for a while, we went back to the car and drove to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. That is really pretty out there. We were too late to take the tour in the lighthouse, but we stopped at the interpretive center for a mini-education about it.

Our drive back to Portland was uneventful. We arrived at home about 6:00, cleaned up and went out to dinner at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, El Tapatio, in Milwaukie.

We toasted 2002 with a glass of champagne at midnight.