We explored Newport today, taking in some of the sites around the town. The main street in the downtown area is being repaved, so we first went to a park overlooking the Yaquina Bay Bridge. The park features the Yaquina Lighthouse, one of many lighthouses that dot this area. This area is very windy, and very rugged. The coastline has some amazing beaches, long and sandy and windswept!

The town has a lot of public art. Lots of buildings are painted with amazing murals, mostly on a nautical theme. The old man in the sea, battling rough waves is very common. They have a couple of Wylund wall murals, with his beloved whales prominently featured. There are some amazing sculptures all over the town, too. Seems every time we turn another corner, another statue is there for us to examine. I’m willing to bet Newport has more public art per capita than any city in North America!

We had been hearing sea lions barking all day, so we knew they were around somewhere. We finally stumbled on them, lounging on one of the docks near the fish processing plant. There is a small rocky point that is totally covered with them too.

Just up the road from us we came upon a stretch of beach that was totally packed with herons. Not sure why they liked this stretch of beach, but we saw dozens of them looking for dinner along this one stretch.

They are pretty nervous birds though. Every time we got close enough for a decent picture, they took off! They are a very cool bird in flight – but it really seems they are just too big to fly!