Oregon Coast Continued... Again

DAY 4

We woke up in beautiful Alsea, Oregon.  The Parkers bought land here mainly because it had an air strip!  But it is a beautiful spot that also has all kinds of berry bushes, fruit trees, a pond in the backyard, and a beautiful creek that flows on the edge of the property.  I wish I had taken more photos to show you how pretty it was!

Maria loved the Parkers' Don Quijote & Sancho Panza statues.  Sancho was just her size!

Friday morning Brother Parker surprised us with an offer to go up in his airplane.  

Uh, YES!  You don't get that chance every day!  He took us out after breakfast and explained how each of the controls worked, then took Aaron and me up one at a time.  We flew over to the coast, what a sight from the air!  Brother Parker took us down low just above the beach, close enough so we could see people waving!  And Aaron was excited about flying the plane himself and banking on the turns.  One to cross off the bucket list!

That afternoon, the Parkers treated us to a trip to the Aquarium in Newport.  We loved seeing the otters, seals, sealions, and puffins!   

We watched the seal & sea lion feeding.  This worker thought that Maria was waving at her... but I think she was just trying to get the sea lion's attention! 

We thought these tunnels were pretty neat.  This one was a shark tank!

Had to try on the crab hat :)

After the aquarium we had a yummy seafood dinner at a place with great views of the ocean! Delish! 

We returned back to the Parkers that evening and it was so fun to catch up and talk about old times.  There's always a special bond with those that served with you in the service of the Lord.  It was neat to hear updates on a lot of the people that we both knew and hear how things are progressing in the Canary Islands.

DAY 5

The next morning Brother Parker took us on a ride around their property in his pickup.  Maria loved peeking inside the truck to say hi!

One final photo before we left.  I feel so lucky to have such wonderful people in my life and to be able to keep in touch with them.  It was so neat for them to meet my family, and I hope this was the first of many visits!

But our trip wasn't over yet!  Since we had a 9 hour drive ahead of us, we needed a pit stop!  Mount Hood sounded like a great spot for a picnic!

Here's a map of our trip.  We broke it up into 5 days.  We had a blast but were SO glad to be home after such a long trip.  The babies did pretty well, considering, but they were also very happy to return to their regular nap routine!