Thursday, May 31, 2012

HARBOR VISTA PARK…FLORENCE, OR

Tuesday, May 29 – We were on the road early this morning headed for our next stop, Florence, OR. The drive was beautiful.

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scenery

We are camped at Harbor Vista County Park in Florence, Oregon. What a nice campground! We are in Site 3 of the 38 available sights. It is easily accessible from Route 101 by driving about 3 miles out to the cape on a nice paved road.

Our site is paved, about 65 feet long, has a fire ring, a tent site (our patio), and 50 amp electric and water. There is a dump station available at the front gate.

Our site…West 3.
.
West 3 Site 3

Our beautiful private side yard.Back of site

Looking left.
Looking left

Looking right.
Looking right

We were greeted by Pauline, a friendly camp host, who directed us to our site and made sure we had everything we needed. There is also a campground caretaker, that lives in a house in the campground, that takes care of maintenance and sells firewood. He does a wonderful job. The park is very clean.

There is a access to the beach where you can walk for miles along the sandy beach. This area of the coast is not the rugged high cliffs associated with most of the Oregon coastline.

Looking across the street where we can view the ocean.Across from site

Bella, our cat, just LOVES all the birds, smells, grass and areas for exploration. We are here for a week, and she will certainly enjoy herself.

This County Park's website does a great job of explaining each site. They even have a category for satellite reception for each site.

A gorgeous sunset.
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Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

 

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

GOLD BEACH, OREGON

We would like to thank everyone for their well wishes for our anniversary. Your comments, emails, and Ecards mean so much to us. A very special THANK YOU to Donna and Russ, Travels in Therapy. Since they know the Florence, OR, area, we told them where we were having dinner. When we arrived at the restaurant, a delicious cheese sampler was waiting for us compliments of Donna and Russ. WOW…we were so surprised. We haven't even met them yet, but we will on Saturday in Eugene. We are looking forward to thanking them in person. We had a wonderful seafood dinner. Oh yes, a few drinks were thrown in there also. Wonderful day and night.

A quick flashback…
Sunday, May 27 – We drove up the coastal highway, OR-101, to the city of Gold Beach. Sunny Gold Beach rests on the banks of the Rogue River where it flows into the Pacific Ocean. The Rogue has long been famous for world-class salmon and steelhead fishing.

Mouth of the Rogue River.Rogue River

The Isaac Lee Patterson Bridge across the Rogue River on Highway 101 at Gold Beach is a beautiful bridge. It was the first in the United States to use prestressed concrete arches to reduce construction costs. It is designed with seven graceful arches that were finished to appear to be stone, but are actually concrete.

Bridge in Gold Beach

We drove to the harbor believing Gold Beach was a fishing town and would have an interesting fishing fleet to view. Nope! We were disappointed in the lack of fishing boats and with the low water level, They do have jet boats that tour up river, but it was a pretty cold and dreary day so not many people were interested in getting wet in the jet boats.

Sea lions taking a break at the harbor.sea lions

We did have a friendly dog come running over carrying a stick wanting to play fetch. The only problem was the stick was a piece of driftwood about ten feet long. It took all his effort to get it off the ground and follow us around the area. He was so disappoint when we had to leave without finding a substitute stick to throw for him. Off he ran down the path, dragging his stick, hoping to find someone to play fetch.

want to play fetch

We stopped at the Myrtlewood Carving Factory on our way out of town. Myrtlewood is an extremely hard wood that is excellent for carving and turning. It grows only on the Northern coast of California, Southwestern Oregon and Israel. It has a beautiful grain and a wide variety of light colors. Tours are available, but being Sunday, only the store was open.

Myrtlewood

inside store

We stopped at several areas along the coast on our way back to Brookings. The rugged coast along 101 is so beautiful.

Organ coast 

The beach is easily accessible and with the tide out, you had plenty of room to walk or play in the dark sand. There were very few people on the beach, even on this holiday weekend. Guess it is too early in the season, or it's too cold, or maybe there just aren't that many people in this area.

Burrrrrrrrr!
Burr

hole in rock

One way to get down to the beach.
trail to beach

Regardless, in most cases we had the vistas all to ourselves or we shared them with only a couple people.

Cape San Sebastian

View from Cape San Sebastian.
cape sebatian

CRATER LAKE – We scrapped plans to visit Crater Lake. It's closed due to snow! There is only one mile of the road that is open. Guess we'll have to see that area sometime in the future.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

30 YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG

Tuesday, May 29 – Yep you guessed it, today is our 30th Wedding Anniversary.

Marsha waving to her subjects.waving at church

It was a gorgeous day. Our church ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was a blast.

by the cake

me and paul

On our 10th Anniversary, Marsha pulled out her wedding dress and let the girls play dress up.

Kelly
Kelly

Carrie
Carrie

It has been 30 years of fun, laughs, love and just a few bumps in the road. Thanks Kelly and Carrie for making it all worth it!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

Monday, May 28, 2012

THANK YOU TO OUR VETERANS

Saturday, May 26 –Thank you to all our Veterans and all those who are serving in any branch of the military. We are the Home of the Free because of the Home of the Brave.

The City of Brookings is having their Annual Azalea Festival this weekend. There are Azalea's everywhere. Marsha HAD to visit the Azalea Park. There was every color of Azalea imaginable. She was in Heaven.

Azalea

Azaleas

Marsha loved this flower but doesn't know its name. Can anyone help her?unknow

We visited the downtown craft show and then the craft show at the harbor. They were both packed!

Festival crowd

Festival food

Festival plants

Brookings has a very nice harbor.Brookings harbor

They are having fireworks tonight over the harbor....not sure if we'll be able to see it from our campground.

We drove up to Harris Beach State Park to see the coastline and ocean. It is so beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous! This is a nice park with beach access. We might go up to enjoy the beach in the next couple days.

Brookings shore

Tons of stuff brought in each day with the waves.Brookings shore 2

For dinner, we couldn't resist some Clam Chowder. We went to Sporthaven Maria, which has won the local Chowder Cook-off three times. It was delicious and reasonable priced. This was the best Clam Chowder we've tasted so far, but we have a long way to go before leaving “Chowder Country.” We plan on tasting several more bowls.

Sporthaven Marina

A bit about Oregon
Oregon is the 10th largest state, covering 97,073 sq. miles.
Oregon's population is 3.7 million with half of its residents living in the Portland Metro area.
Oregon has NO sales tax.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

Sunday, May 27, 2012

HELLO OREGON

Saturday, May 26 - We headed north to Brookings, Oregon, today.

A bit foggy at the beginning of the trip.fog

This is our first time in Oregon! We've already visited some beautiful coastal areas here in Brookings, and we just started Oregon.....WOW!

Paul and Marsha Oregon coast

Oregon coast

We are staying at Chetco RV Park on highway 101 south in Brooking, OR. It certainly isn't a luxury resort but will be nice for the 3-days we are here. We called the Brookings Elks Lodge, but they said they were full for the holiday weekend. We walked past the Elks while visiting Brooking, and noticed numerous open sites.  Not sure what is up with that, but it may have been difficult to maneuver into the Elks because of a festival going on in the city.

Site 21. Privacy hedge on both sides which we like.Site 21

Site 21-1

Back

Looking right down the road. No one on either side of us.
Right down road

Left
Left down road

So we're all settled in and ready to visit the beautiful Oregon coast.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

EXPERIENCE THE VICTORIANS…EUREKA, CA

Friday, May 25 – We drove and walked around Old Town Eureka this morning on a cool and rainy day. The old buildings certainly have some interesting architecture. It's nice to see so many have been saved, restored, and put to good use. We stopped in one old building that is now a coffee house and internet cafe'. A perfect fit for a building built in the early 1900's.

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The Carson Manson…now a private club.
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Victorian bldg

There are numerous murals painted on the sides of building scattered throughout the area. We always enjoy seeing these murals and sharing them with our readers.

ALLEY CATS
ALLEY CATS

TRIBUTE TO ARCHITECTURE AND PERFORMING ARTSTRIBUTE TO ARCHITECTURE AND PERFORMING ARTS

ANIMALS ARE PEOPLE TOODSC04779

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We drove out to Woody Island to see the Sea Captain statue and look at some of the fishing boats. It's fun to walk along the docks and talk to all the seamen and pirates.....RRRRR!!!

FISHERMAN'S MEMORIAL STATUE.FISHERMAN'S MEMORIAL STATUE

Table Bluff Lighthouse
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Eureka Bay

There is a Victorian House driving tour. It was raining. but we did most of the drive any way. Here are just a few of the many beautiful Victorian Homes.

Victorian home 1
Victorian home 2

Victorian home 3

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!