We spent the second half of Labor Day weekend exploring the (southern) Oregon Coast, which was spectacular! If you are ever in Oregon or in northern California, you should (besides visiting us) drive this stretch of Highway 101 (Pacific Coast Scenic Byway). While I had ventured to the northern seaside towns of Cannon Beach, Seaside, and Tillamook when I did a ER rotation at OHSU while in medical school, I had never been to the southern part of the 101.
NWcoast.com
Kieu and Jimmy, friends from Orange County, were actually also in Oregon for the weekend, and we met up on Sunday to explore the dunes in an ATV. Although neither K nor I have ever ridden a quad/ATV, to accommodate the four of us (and Pep), we instead rented a 4-seater.
(I love how Kelvin is the only one in this picture with a helmet on!)
Although we got stuck going up our first hill (we were too slow, apparently!), refractory to digging out sand, and had to be rescued by one of the tour company employees, it was pretty smooth sailing after that point (from my standpoint in the rear; Kelvin said that driving was quite nerve-wracking and gave him his dose of adrenaline for the day!).
Kieu held Pepper while I helped with the digging efforts.
After a delicious Thai food lunch near the Coos Bay boardwalk, we went our separate ways (Kieu and Jimmy back to Portland, and we headed south down the coast).
We stopped in Bandon ("Bandon by the Sea"), which had a cute Old Town and pier area.
Bandon is known for its cranberry bogs, and we had a great time sampling its goodies at the downtown store Cranberry Sweets and More. Unfortunately, the Cheese Factory had closed; otherwise, I would have hit that up as well (while K [cheese-hater] watched Pepper).
Bandon also had a scenic Beach Loop Drive, where we saw such seastacks as this "Face Rock."
South of Bandon, we visited one of our "random" sights, America's (apparently) largest wild animal petting park.
We had a chance to pet some exotic creatures-- a bear cub here...
... a red fox there....
... and an (albino?) ferret.
(We chose not to battle the kiddos to stand in line to pet the cougar cub although I was reeeeeallly tempted).
I enjoyed the free-roaming deer, goats, sheep, and llamas...
... although here is Kelvin's "not impressed" expression, standing by a (goat and) llama (I think he was just too scared to get closer, as they do spit!).
A lotta llamas... (Llama alley)
They even had some big animals-- a couple of tigers, panthers, and a lion (although I always feel really bad seeing big cats in cages).
When we finished scraping dung off our shoes, we headed south towards Port Orford, where we stopped by Cape Blanco Lighthouse S.P, located apparently at the westernpoint point of the continental U.S.
In Port Orford proper, we had more great coastal views from the Port Orford Heads State Park.
We settled into our motel (Sea Crest), which was really cozy, with a view of the ocean. It called itself a "B &B without the B [breakfast]," although it did offer in-room coffee. The flat screen TV, and DirectTV with the Tennis Channel, was an added luxury (and dangerous, with the U.S. Open on!).
On Monday morning, we explored more of Port Orford, at Battle Rock City Park.
Pepper and Kelvin gazed at the ocean
Pepper loved running along the beach!
Little Pep (can you spot her?), Big Rock
We stopped by an awesome bookstore, Gold Beach Books, in Gold Beach (another cute OR town), for scones and browsing, and then continued south.
The next "random" sight on the 101 was the Prehistoric Gardens (a strangely-placed attraction displaying life-sized dinosaur figurines). Since you could actually see parts of the "park" from the highway (such as this ?brachiocephalosaurus neck/head), we didn't pay the entrance fee to actually enter the ~rainforest.
Just off the highway were lots of viewpoints within Samuel Boardman State Park such as these:
Arch Rock
Natural Bridge
We ate lunch by the boardwalk in Brookings, Oregon.
And then we stopped at one last "random" roadside attraction (which is actually just over the state border in California) -- the "Ship Ashore," a ship-turned-giftshop/museum. Unfortunately, it was closed on Labor Day, but we still got some good snapshots of the exterior.
As you can see, we had glorious weather (a bit warmer than in Arcata, and much sunnier!).
We loved the Oregon Coast and will be back!
1 comment:
Glad you got to explore the Oregon coast. Maybe we will both end up living close someday?!? Brandon used to caddy down at Bandon Dunes for the summers...it is so pretty down there!
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