M-Ore-gon

August 19 – 29, 2021

 

For this stay, we based ourselves out of South Jetty RV Campground.  It’s a lovely, very wooded campground.  Outside our door is a forest of spruce trees.  The view of the long, dark brown trunks along with the rays of filtered sunlight making their way through the pine canopy gives such a layback vibe to our “home”.

 

A few miles north of Florence, right along Hwy.101, is the Hobbit Trail.  Just the name of it makes me smile!  It brought back fond memories of reading The Hobbit in Gene Conrad’s Modern Novel class when I was in high school.  Well, the trail did not disappoint!  It was one mile (out and back) along a fairy like trail that takes you to the Pacific Ocean.  The trail was lined with dense vegetation that gave it the feel of walking through a tunnel.  Every once in a while, you would come to a “hobbit hole” (which, in all likelihood, was a game trail) leading off the main trail.  Even the hobbit holes were fun to crawl around in and explore!  Once we reached the beach, it was heavily fogged in.  The fog added to the magical feel of the experience!  Suddenly emerging from the heavy vegetation, walking out onto the sandy beach, hearing the loud roar of the waves but only seeing a thick fog was amazing!  After walking only a few yards towards the sound of the ocean, the shoreline began to appear and the forested area behind us, began to sink away into the misty fog.  Once we found the actual shoreline, it was fun to take off my shoes and let the waves splash over my feet as we strolled the hardpacked, sandy beach.  Along the hightide line, there was a ton of washed-up jellyfish.  I don’t know if this is normal or not!  I assume it is, but it does make you wonder if it is something environmental that is affecting them.  

From the same trail head, instead of going down to the beach, you can go south on the trail.  It is a three-mile (out and back) trail that leads you to Heceta Head Lighthouse.  It was a good incline for the first half of the trail, followed by a good descent down to the lighthouse making this trail a great workout!  My knee has been giving me a little trouble and fussed at me during the descents, but managed the inclines well enough.  This portion of the trail was more forested with occasional flowers, mushrooms… (even a racer snake) along the floor of the forest.  Reaching the lighthouse gave us a stunning view!  By then, the fog was beginning to lift and we had a clear view of the bay below the lighthouse.  Apparently, this bay has a kelp bed that the gray whales like to feed on.  The day we went, there was a small pod of whales feeding!  What a bonus!  Seeing their spout spraying just before you saw their body was so fun!  We didn’t have our binoculars with us, but you could still see them clearly!

 

Old Town Florence has an historic area, right along the river waterfront of Florence.  The visitor center had provided us with a self-guided walking tour of the historic buildings and locations located in Old Town.  It was really fun to walk around, enjoying the sunny day and visualizing what life was like in 1890 when this town was brand new.

While we were strolling around the historic area, we found ourselves particularly drawn to what was once Bill’s Auto Service.  The building has been around since around 1944, which certainly was a far cry from being the oldest building in town.  What was so attractive about the place was that it is currently a coffee shop!  River Roasters by the Bridge was able to make me a delicious Americano!  Better yet, they had river front tables that we were able to savor the flavor at!

 

Florence has also come up with a genius, new twist on how to get visitors into their shops!  You’ve heard of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, the winery trail, quilting trail… right?  Well, get ready, Florence has a “Charm Trail”!  You start by picking up an inexpensive bracelet at the trailhead and then various shops scattered around town have a charm for you to add to your bracelet for $2.00.  I have a couple of granddaughters who I think will love this trinketry gift at Christmas.  Actually, if I’m completely honest, I’m having a blast trying to collect all of the charms! 

 

Coincidently (or not!), Dick has a first cousin who just happens to live in Florence!  Dick’s father (Verner) and Gordon’s father (Lewey) were brothers.  Although we have kept in touch, we haven’t seen Gordon in 14 years!    Seeing Gordy was fantastic!  Gordy is a 88 years old, living in his own home, and doing incredibly well!  We were able to spend several afternoons visiting with him and getting reacquainted.  It wasn’t long before the stories flowed and the laughter followed.  The afternoons absolutely flew by! 

 

When we walked Agate Beach in Newport, I had been impressed by what I thought were sand dunes.  Well, I had NO idea of what I was talking about!  I’ve since learned that there is such a thing as Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Beginning just north of Florence and going 54 miles south along the coast there are SAND DUNES!  We couldn’t resist learning about and experiencing these amazing formations by taking a dune buggy tour with Sandland Adventures.  Our driver took us on a one hour tour where we laughed at his corny jokes and screamed with fear at his fearless attack of the dunes!  

 

We also learned that much of the dunes are now covered with European beachgrass, which they spent ten years planting in the 1970’s.  They planted it to help stabilize the sandy coastlines and protect roads, water supplies, jetties, and homes.  The project was well intended; however, the grass thrived in its new environment and rapidly spread.  It spread so much that it has prevented the sand’s movement and caused huge mats of vegetation to form where once there was open sand.  This, in turn, has caused plants and animals that need open sandy areas to struggle to survive.  Now they are studying how to get rid of the stuff!  

 

Brandon and Anne invited us to Little Zoe’s baptism, which was on August 22^nd.  We had purchased tickets to fly to Salt Lake City to witness this sacrament, but with the increase in the Delta variant, we canceled our flights.  We just couldn’t risk exposing the children (who aren’t of age to be vaccinated) to this scary stuff!  Anyway, we did get to participate via Zoom!  Technology is such a blessing!

With my knee giving me a little trouble, we decided to give the hiking trails a break and go on a canoe trail for a day!  Siltcoos Lake sits not far inland from the Pacific Ocean and connecting the two is the Siltcoos River Canoe Trail.  It is a 6.7 mile (out and back) trail that was a delight to kayak!  We packed a picnic lunch, loaded up our dry bag and hopped in a double kayak to head to the Pacific!  Along the way, we passed through forests, dunes and a wide estuary before it opened onto the sea!

 

Along the way, we experienced our very first portage.  About halfway along the trail is a small dam that required us to haul the kayak a few yards. Pulling off a successful portage required us to get out of the kayak and onto the dock without tipping over!  Sounds easy enough, but it was trickier than what I had anticipated.  Fortunately, we were able to take our time, think it through and ended up not taking a swim!  Where we did run into trouble was with the tide!  Once we reached the sea, we beached our kayak along the bank of the river and walked a little way to eat our sack lunch.  When we were finished eating, we began walking back and couldn’t set our sights on the bright red kayak.  As our concern grew, so did our pace!  Soon we noticed an orange kayak with our kayak in tow.  Eric had been picnicking on the opposite shore and was keeping an eye on the tide.  The tide came up impressively fast and before long reached our kayak and quickly allowed our run-away kayak to travel about 100 yards down the river.  I’m so thankful for Eric’s observant eye and his quick action!  It would have been a long, cold swim back!

 

I’ve heard of snowboarding. In fact, Brandon used to have one.  What I’ve never heard of is sandboarding!  Well, where there are dunes, there are sandboards!  We couldn’t resist pulling off the road to see how this sport works.  It was quite a workout getting to the top of the sand dune, but looked quite fun to ride a board down the hill.  One couple even had a sled to ride down on!  It’s a much warmer sport – a lot like snowboarding, just more sand!

 

My father-in-law was a sage man whom I had a lot of respect and love for.  Verner seemed to know a lot about a lot of things and always had advice for you if you asked for help.  He’d have little sayings to fit just about every situation that usually proved to provide some good insight.  The one exception I have is with his “people are no damn good” saying which he would pull out, typically when watching the evening news.  Today was a good example of why I choose to believe “people are so amazingly good”!  We had been running around to lots of businesses, collecting charms on the “Charm Trail” when I suddenly realized I didn’t know where my wallet was.  I was certain I had left it in the truck, but it wasn’t there.  I suddenly heard my mother-in-law saying the St. Anthony prayer, “Tony, Tony, please come around.  Something is lost and can’t be found.”  (Does anyone else have voices in their head?)  St. Anthony is the patron saint for the recovery of lost items.  Whatever your beliefs are, I found myself saying the prayer.  In return, I found myself staying mostly calm and able to think reasonably.  We began searching, and re-searching the truck, looking between the seats, under the seats, in all of the compartments…  We began retracing all of our steps.  Some of the shops even pulled up security footage to see if I had left my wallet there.  We searched in all of the parking spots, wondering if it had somehow fallen out of the truck.  No luck anywhere.  Finally, one shopkeeper suggested I check in at St. Vinnie’s (a donation center located in the same parking lot, which if you are curious, St. Vincent De Paul is the patron saint of charitable societies).  She said they have a lost and found and people will frequently turn things in there.  Off we went and, while we were inquiring at the desk, a woman shopping in the shore, chimed in, suggested I check with the police department.  Thanking her for her suggestion, we went back to the truck where I promptly called the police department.  We had run out of ideas and although I gave it very little chance, I didn’t have any better ideas.  My next move was going to be cancelling credit cards and trying to figure out how in the world you get a new driver’s license from South Dakota when you are in Oregon.  I wish I had some security footage of my face when the police officer told me “We have your wallet.”  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!!  Some thoughtful stranger found my wallet in that very parking lot and drove it to the police department.  I am so very thankful for all of the helpful people who assisted in leading me to my lost wallet!  Like I said, people are so very, amazingly good!

 

Darlingtonia State Natural Site, just a couple of miles north of Florence, has a botanical garden that is worth stopping at.  Its main attraction is the Darlingtonia Californicas.  These rare, carnivorous, cobra lilies are native in the bog areas of Northern California and Southwestern Oregon.  It would be amazing to see them in bloom (May and June) as they having hanging blooms of yellow and red – great color combinations for these Cyclone fans!

Sixty miles South of Florence is a beautiful series of three state parks that were amazing to visit!  Each of the parks merge into each other as you drive along Hwy. 540.  The first park you come to is Sunset Bay. It has a beach that would be hard to beat. Next is Shore Acres that has views that made it extremely difficult to walk away from.  Shore Acres has an interesting story.  In the early 1900’s, L.J. Simpson fell in love with this spot, purchased the land, built a mansion and gave it to his wife for Christmas!  After a fire demolished it some years later, he rebuilt it just in time for the Great Depression to hit.  Eventually, he donated it to the state and it became a state park where everyone can enjoy it.  Oregon’s moderate temperatures and rocky coastline have quickly become a favorite place for me!  

Lastly, is Cape Arago, where we walked down to the shoreline in a couple of locations.  One spot had a colony of sea lions, barking away.  Once we got down to the beach, a rocky ridge still separated us from the sea lions.  A young gal convinced me it was an easy climb and promised a view well worth the effort.  She was kind enough to help me find the necessary foothold to scale myself to the top.  The view was spectacular, as promised! The trip back down from the ledge proved to be a bit trickier!  Again, the gal was kind enough to talk me through it and guide my feet and hands to the right locations.  This experience proved to me that I’m no rock climber!  

Another spot along the shore we hiked to had a decent tidal pool to explore and we were there at the tail end of low tide.  It was a fun adventure, on a day with a clear blue sky and temperatures that came close to 70 degrees F.  I have to admit, I find myself wondering why in the world it took me 64 years to get here!  This is by far my favorite spot we have been to.  

 

Random FYI notes about Oregon:

•    ·    You are not allowed to pump your own gas at a gas station.  It’s the law. There is an employee there that will do it for you.
•          Everyone refers to roads as “the 101” or “the 5”…  I have no idea why “the” is thrown in there, but if you want to fit in, you should add it!
•          Marijuana is legal and pot shops are on every corner.  I'm going to plead the 5th if you ask me any questions about this!
•          Coffee shops are in good competition for prevalence with pot shops.  Drive up, tiny shops are in most parking lots.  You find them by looking for the long line of cars!