Dec. 23, 2015---heading south towards Newport and seal beach:

 One of Tim's birthday presents was from Rogue, but it was too big.  So we headed back there so he could exchange it.  Here's Angie feeling festive as we were leaving our condo unit.

We made a couple stops along our way to Newport.  There's this cool bridge on Otter Loop off of 101 south of Depoe Bay.

 Usually we're on the Oregon coast in the summer.  The ocean is rough then, too, but not nearly as rough as it's been this winter trip!

 playing with my new zoom lens.

Right before Newport is Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area.  We've been coming here for over 50 years.  Back then there was the lighthouse and the rocky beach where we liked to toss rocks on and watch them bounce.  Now there's a day fee, a museum, and a tidal pool area as well as the lighthouse and rocks.  It was exceptionally cold and extremely windy today!  But since Ken has a senior pass that gets us in free, we went and checked it out.

 couldn't resist a reflection picture.

 Playing with the long zoom again.

 and again.

 By the path to the tide pools, I stayed at the top and played with my new lens while the kids walked down.  Here Josh is pointing out a bunch of seals.

The lens does a great job. Unfortunately the pictures put into this blog are fuzzy I guess from resizing to under 800k.  

Angie went all the way down to the water.  No tide pools today.  I think it was high tide or close to it.

 Faith and Tim heading back up.

Angie and Josh heading back up.

 Then we headed to Rogue. 

After exchanging his gift, we wandered around the pier.

 Then we headed to the other side of the bay.

We've given up on Rogue for meals and searched Yelp for a good restaurant.  It came up with Local Ocean Seafood on the bay.  So we went there for the first time ever.  We all really enjoyed our meals. 

 After lunch it was time to go visit the sea lions again.

They sure are loud!

Even managed to see some unusual sea fowl.

????

Something I wasn't expecting for winter on the Oregon coast was about to happen---a pretty sunset!  So we rode over to the other side of the bridge for a picture of the bridge and to check out the sunset.

when I saw the beginning of the sunset, I suggested we head farther south to Seal Rock. 

 It was a little farther away then I remembered, but as I thought---it's a great place to catch a sunset!

Tim and Faith and the sunset.

one more picture.

another great ending to another great day.