First #FieldTrip of the #Homeschool Year: #Aquarium

Thursday was Field Trip Day at Unionvale Homeschool.

We traveled 2 hours South West to Newport for a visit to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The boys received a Groupon gift certificate from Auntie for Easter this past year and it was about to expire so off we went.  We made a stop in Lincoln City at McDonald's for a quick lunch (I didn't have enough time to get a lunch packed in the morning...)


We finally made it to the Aquarium and headed in. The path from the parking lot is a very nice paved nature trail with a small stream which Nathan was very interested in. He wanted a picture of the stream and plants so I let him take the photo.. Not too bad for a 6 year old wild kid.

 The boys thoroughly enjoyed the touch pool although at first they weren't sure if they were going to actually touch any of the creatures. I told them it had always been my favorite part of the Aquarium when I was little and showed them it was ok to touch the creatures, then they started gently touching each different star fish and anenomi. We spent probably 20 minutes exploring the tide pool , touch pool.

 We all found a quiet solace in just watching the fish  through the glass. And even more so once we made it to the tunnel to walk through the water and see all the fish in their own environments.  We sat on the floor and got lost looking up to the fish.

 We found the children's outside play area and all enjoyed the animal statues to climb and sit on. Even unvlDad got in on the fun.  It isn't often you can get my boys to sit together , this was about as good as it gets.

We made our way back to see the Aviary , the seal lions, and sea otters  The Aviary was actually really neat we got to see the birds up close. It was amazing to interact with the birds as if they understood what we were saying. The boys had a lot of fun with that.

 We left the Aquarium and headed back across the Yaquina Bay Bridge to find some beach to play on. We ended up at a neat little park with a very long windy path down to the beach.  The boys and Mommy played in the water while Daddy hung back and rested a bit.  Yes I was in the water, I hiked my skirt up so I wouldn't get too wet.

We ended the day with a drive back to Lincoln City for dinner at the McMennamin's Lighthouse Pub where we reviewed all we saw and drew pictures. After all was said and done I had to see the sunset on the beach so we went around the corner to Road's End beach park to watch the sunset before we drove home.