Perfect Day

We had the most perfect day at the coast yesterday (= We had all sorts of grown-up responsible things we could have done, but we decided to just go have fun. It was a good choice. The day started a bit cloudy and cool, so we hit Newport, OR first to see the sea lions. Edgar loved them.

We decided to try out one of the tourist traps we have so far avoided in Newport. We "walked with the butterflies." It was 10 bucks well spent! What a fun day of discovery for Edgar!

He wanted to give the butterfly a nose kiss (=

Got one!
You can put your finger by their feet, and they climb on. Edgar was very gentle. Mostly. I'm pretty sure no butterfly died because of him.

Here he is saying, proudly, "Edgar! Edgar!" Because he had gotten to hold the butterfly on his very own finger.

Alex also enjoyed communing with the butterflies.
Then, it was on to the beach! We spent the afternoon at Nye Beach in Newport. We found the perfect little valley between sand dunes to set up our blanket and toys. It was warm, sunny, not windy...PERFECT (and mostly unheard of at the Oregon Coast!).

We had too much fun to take many pictures. Needless to say, there was a lot of climbing up and sliding down the sand dunes--and of course digging in and eating of the sand. We went down to the water and Edgar was quite nervous...until he saw two people running down the beach on the wet sand. He got SO excited! He said, "Edgar run-run-run!" And, he did. He ran and ran and ran down that beach! He only wanted to go north (on account of the bright sun in his eyes), so we went quite a ways before we could coax him back. By the end he was even running into the receding waves a little, popping bubbles in the sea foam, laughing a lot, and asking for "more more more."

What a perfect day.