Our time in Oregon was delightful! It brought back floods of memories for me of my childhood, especially the abundant blackberry bushes! One of our stops was to the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Or. Now, granted, the only aquarium we can compare to is in Albuquerque, the middle of the desert, but this aquarium was awesome!! The touch pool was my favorite part. . .tons of different sea anenomies, urchins, rays, cleaner shrimp and starfish right at our fingertips...literally!! One of the craziest things we saw were the Japanese spider crabs, the largest crabs in the world. They can grow to be upto 100 pounds in weight and up to 13 feet in wingspan of their legs...they were HUGE and CREEPY!! They looked like something out of a horror movie of old.."Attack of the Spider Crabs". We also got to see sea otters being fed and experience hurricane force winds of 78 mph. It was a total blast of an experience for sure! Later in the day John took Luke, Paige and Lila to the beach where they could play in the water. This was a life-lesson learned on the risks of hypothermia!! Even with the used wet suits that were purchased from local thrift stores (I love thrift stores!), they only lasted 10 minutes in the bitter cold water. They came out with blue lips and the super shivers! Despite the temperature, they said they had a blast and wanted to back to the next day. So on Friday, after our wonderful hike to see a beautiful waterfall and have a picnic in the forests of Oregon and a little bit of shopping in cute antique stores, they ventured out to experience the beach again. They chose a different beach with bigger waves and a bit more of a protected cove. This time they boogie-boarded for a whopping 22 minutes and swore that the waters were "so much warmer!". Us crazy New Mexicans were the only ones in the ocean! Today we are on the road heading north to Washington. We will shortly be stopping at the Tillamook cheese factory in Tillamook, Oregon to take the tour and partake of their yummy cheese. Ultimately, we will be landing on the Washington/Canada boarder for a few days to enjoy Seattle and go into a bit of Canada. Perhaps my next blog I'll describe some of the challenges we have had in camper living, but overall, everyone is adapting nicely. Our family has told us of the heat and fires going on in NM and we certainly aren't missing that...our warmest weather has been 65 degrees (with the exception of Death Valley) and about 55 degrees in the evenings. Please know that we are thinking of all of you and praying for you often! Happy Father's Day to all you dad's out there...and especially my daddy, James Dean, the best daddy on earth!! Blessings from the Lioness and her family(the pride).