Our first weekend in Oregon, we decided we needed a break from all the work that comes with moving and decided to take a day trip (June 7th) to the coast. Andy was really excited for me to see the ocean, it had been 6 years since my last trip to the coast. The drive was beautiful! Nothing really compares to driving through the forest.
Our first stop was the North Jetty in Florence. When we stepped out of the car we quickly realized that it was very windy out. As we made our way out toward the jetty sand kept hitting my face, it felt like sandpaper. Needless to say our walk onto the jetty and beach were cut very short. We were kind of disappointed and decided to get some fuel for the car before heading home.
As we were getting fuel I mentioned to Andy that I thought there was a
lighthouse in Florence. We called my sister and she did some searching online and found out that there was a haunted lighthouse in Florence--this was too good to pass up. We looked up some directions and headed toward the lighthouse.
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| I found some berries. |
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| I thought they were salmon berries but Andy said they did not taste good. Oops! |
On the way to the light house we passed the world's largest
sea lion caves. We thought it would be something fun to see and got out of the car to go in only to discover that they were closed, likely due to the wind. We took a few pictures and decided that we would need to make another trip to the coast to see the sea lion caves.
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| Sea Lion Caves! |
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| Acting like a crab. |
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| This photo gives you an idea how windy it was. |
We continued on our way and found the lighthouse, inn keeper's house, and a historical bridge that is over 100 years old. We parked the car and discovered that it was some sort of
state park day so we didn't have to pay for parking-- that was a pleasant surprise.
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| Historic bridge. |
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| Love watching the clouds, they move so fast! |
We decided to walk up the trail (it's 1/2 a mile to a mile) to the lighthouse. We walked through some wooded area (grateful for those, they helped block the wind) before coming to the inn keeper's house. This old house is beautiful! I have never seen anything quite like it. We also learned that you can rent a room in it for the night, we decided that this is something we won't be doing EVER since we learned that it is the inn keeper's house that is haunted and not the lighthouse.
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| Andy loved all of the trees. |
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| The haunted inn keeper's house. |
After looking at the inn keeper's house we decided to continue on to the lighthouse. Andy's was really interested in the lighthouse, this was his first time ever seeing one in real life. Supposedly you can go inside the lighthouse but the hours are really weird, we are going to have to time it right so Andy can go inside.
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| Heceta Head Lighthouse--most photographed lighthouse in the world. |
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| <3 |
I really enjoyed standing up at the lighthouse and looking out at the water and watching the clouds roll in. Something about the ocean and the waves is very calming to me.
As we headed back toward the car we discovered a small beach that was sheltered somewhat from the wind. I couldn't help myself, I had to get in the water even with it being really cold.
On our way out we stopped to grab a bite to eat at Dairy Queen (food options are slim in Florence, it's not much of a tourist town) and then headed home.
I really enjoyed our day at the beach despite the wind and I can't wait to go back!
*We later learned that the wind that day was 20-30 mph.
