CANNON BEACH - A big sea lion and a seal pup were lounging around two different beaches near Cannon Beach on Thursday night. Both had signs posted around them to stay away, with one being dangerous to humans.

Both have since left.

Tiffany Boothe of Seaside Aquarium said the California sea lion was resting on the beach near the Stephanie Inn in Cannon Beach. It seemed thin and a bit tired,but otherwise active.

Crews from the Seaside Aquarium are part of the Marine Mammal Stranding Network, which responds to such seal beachings. They posted the signs asking the public to leave the animals alone.

Aquarium manager Keith Chandler said the sea lion was simply resting on the beach, as was the baby seal. "He just picked Cannon Beach to take a nap," he said. "It just happens that they make the beaches their bedrooms."

Seals and sea lions can fall asleep in the water, but it's not a good night's rest, so they prefer land. Normally, sea lions find hidden rocks or isolated jetties to fall asleep.

The Oregon coast is littered with secret rocky areas where sea lions and seals rest.

"He was alert," Chandler said. "Alert enough to nearly take my head off when I started to get close."

The baby harbor seal was hanging out just a few miles south, at Arcadia Beach State Park. It too was trying to take a long nap, as babies do. This one is just a few days older than the one that rested at Cannon Beach during the busy holiday weekend, which was a newborn that still had its umbilical chord.

"This baby seal no longer has his umbilical cord," Boothe said. "The pup seemed active, and again we placed signs around the pup to inform the public to leave the seal pup alone."

Chandler said this one was the cutest one he'd seen in a long time. He said it has reunited with its mom.

Last weekend's pup brought up some more issues about how the public should leave these little ones alone.

The baby seal this weekend had a kind of fairy tale ending - for seals, at least.

"Sure enough, the mother did not approach the baby while the crowds were around," Chandler said. "But we got reports from Haystack Awareness staff that she came in about 4 a.m. and was nursing the seal. They could even see the mother seal in the water, checking in on her baby sometimes during the day.

"Once the holiday ended, the two swam off back into the ocean - flipper in flipper. They're probably doing underwater summersaults now. That illustrated exactly what we preached: Stay away and the mother will come and get the baby."