This is part of our 100 Things in 2015 challenge. Here’s the full list.

We’ve driven past this place a dozen times, and even tried to stop once last year, but it was too stormy and they were closed! This year, the weather was much better, so we went in and bought our tickets… only to find that it wasn’t the right time of day, and the animals were all out feeding! Apparently we have bad luck with this place.

We went down into the cave anyways, and read all the placards, and looked out at where they would be if we were luckier. On our way back up, though, we spotted some sea lions out in the ocean, and spent 20 minutes or so just watching them.

Oh, and when we stopped in Newport’s historic bayfront, the docks were just covered with snoozing sea lions. So maybe the caves were empty, but we got our fill anyways.