Heceta Beach in Florence, OR

I imagine by looking at the title and photos you can guess where we went today! We decided to go down to the beach this morning. The weather was fabulous so we wanted to take advantage. We went to Heceta Beach, yet another very nice Oregon beach. At first I was surprised by how many people were there but then I remembered it’s Labor Day. We walked and Cheye splashed down the beach for a bit and then decided it was time to head home for lunch and a quiet afternoon.

Tomorrow we move to Whaler’s Rest Park in South Beach, Oregon where we will stay for a couple weeks. After that we will begin heading a bit further South. Gotta stay ahead of the weather!

photos:
top: Heceta Beach
bottom: a happy wet running Cheyenne
video: Heceta Beach

On and Off

Woke up to sun here in Florence Oregon, followed by rain, followed by sun, followed by rain, you get the idea. Consequently we stayed in most of the day. Of course Cheye makes us get out for walks a few times during the day, but that was about it.

We did a lot of travel discussion on where to go to in the November - December months. We are slowly coming up with a plan that includes both Thousand Trails campgrounds and others. The plan is to head to the Medina Lake Thousand Trails campground west of San Antonio, TX. I’ve never been to TX and Dave has only driven through part of it so it's all new territory.

People find such unique ways to decorate their campsites. The photos I have posted are of decorated satellite dishes. Bud & Pat (couple we met at Chehalis Thousand Trails) said they saw lots of people in Algodones Mexico painting the satellite dishes. Not sure if that is where these people had their dishes painted or not but they are fun!

Another Cheye Video

I bought a little cart the other day to roll the laundry to the laundry room rather than having Dave carry it or driving the pickup down. This morning I loaded up the soap, laundry, a book and deck of cards and headed out rolling my little cart. Worked great! Dave & Cheye walked down and visited for a bit while I was waiting on the laundry. Once I got back we both did a little computing and had lunch. Then the three of us walked down to the dog run area and were joined by 3 others with their dogs and even though the dogs varied from 4 pounds to 104 pounds they all seemed to have some fun. Later it was dinner and some TV.

We have been discussing where we want to go this winter again. I think we are leaning toward Texas but we haven’t put together a game plan yet. I’d like to fit some Arizona in there too. There is just so many places we’d like to see….I guess we are just going to have to full-time for a long time to fit it all in!

The video today was taken yesterday at South Jetty in Florence Oregon. Cheye just loved being in the ocean again. In the middle of the video Cheye kind of jumps up on her back legs…there was a Seagull overhead so she tried to jump up to get it! I think what amuses me most is remembering her just about 3 months ago…afraid of the ocean. My how she has changed. I still get a laugh at the video I took when she was trying to figure out what the sea foam was… I may have to post that one again, it is worth a second view. :o)

Photos:
Top: a happy wet dog
Middle: Dave & Cheye
Bottom: a Coast Guard cutter going down the river

To the Foggy Beach

We went into town this morning to get mail, run some errands and run a dog. Since we don’t have beach access at the park Cheye hasn’t been able to run in the ocean for at least a week. Poor doggy! We drove down to a State park, I’m afraid I didn’t catch the name but it was by the south Jetty. It was so foggy/misty that we couldn’t see the ocean from the parking lot but we could hear it!. Once we got to the beach Cheye was a crazy dog running and jumping in the ocean. We let her run until she was pooped. (video tomorrow)

From there we went back down to Old Town and had lunch. Again a yummy meal, I had a shrimp sandwich and Dave had a coney dog. After lunch we headed home and relaxed for a while. I took Cheye out for a walk later, then it was dinner time.

Tonight is my final installment of our sightseeing on Tuesday. It is the Old Town area of Florence. Cute shops, beautiful views and some great restaurants, what more could you want? :o)

photos and video:
All taken in the Old Town area of Florence Oregon

Slow Start

My day started slowly today. As I was signing off an email I realized it was after 10:00 a.m. and all I had done so far was feed the dog, get dressed and had coffee, oh and wrote one email. But that is one of the beauties of this life style, no lawn to mow, no weeds to pull, no big house to clean so sitting around till 10:00 is no big deal!

I finally decided I should do something so I started with bank statements. After I finished the three I had sitting here we had lunch and took Cheye for a walk. Once we got back we decided to wash the outside of the windows and then sat outside and just relaxed. The weather was fabulous all day today. We took another long walk before dinner and then we watched a movie.

As I mentioned yesterday I decided to break up the video taken on our sight seeing day Tuesday into three parts. Yesterday was Sea Lion Caves and today it will be Heceta Lighthouse. Here is a website about the lighthouse. I know I posted a short video of the lighthouse a couple days ago, but it was so beautiful up there I figured you wouldn't mind another one!

Hey...yesterday's post was my 100th! Woo-hoo! :o)

photos:
top: Keepers house at Heceta Lighthouse - now a bed and breakfast
middle: the view!
bottom: the lighthouse
video: all from our visit to Heceta Lighthouse

Some more about Sea Lion Caves

Today we woke to gray skies and some light rain. Good thing we did our sight seeing yesterday! The morning and afternoon was taken up by video editing, downloading pictures, a couple walks, and catching up on some emails. We also signed up for the spaghetti dinner tonight over at South Jetty Betty’s diner.

Back from dinner! Very good spaghetti dinner. Spaghetti with meat sauce, garlic bread, salad bar (fruit and green salad) all for $5.75. After dinner we took a long walk around the park. It turned in to a very pretty day, the sun came out about 3:00. A little breezy but not bad at all.

I decided to break up my video from yesterday in 3 parts, Sea Lion Caves, Heceta Lighthouse and then Old Town Florence. There was just too much stuff to put it all in one little video. So tonight is the Sea Lion Caves. The Cave has been a tourist attraction since 1932. Both Dave & I visited with our families when we were kids and then together a few years back. It’s not a place you spend hours at but it is a fun stop. They have a website that includes a webcam looking toward Heceta Lighthouse.

photos:
both taken yesterday at Sea Lion Caves, Florence, OR
video: also Sea Lion Caves

Sea Lion Caves, Heceta Head Lighthouse and Old Town

We decided to go see a few of the local attractions and our first stop was Sea Lion Caves. We have been there before but being good tourists we stopped. Admission to the cave is $10.00 for adults. There were a number of noisy Sea Lions on the rocks outside the cave and a group inside. Last time we were there it was packed with Sea Lions but not as many this time. Still they were interesting and the views are amazing.

From there we went to Heceta Head Lighthouse. There is also the keeper’s house there which is supposedly haunted, I didn’t see it but Dave claims to have seen something inside go by one of the windows, the fact that is it now a bed and breakfast I didn’t doubt him. ;o) It costs $3.00 for parking (no fee to go up to the lighthouse) and is a ½ mile walk from the parking lot but it is beautiful. The lighthouse was built in 1894. Again, the views were fabulous.

Finally we went to Old Town Florence and had lunch. We looked around in a few of the shops and walked a bit on the pier by the river. They have done a great job restoring the area, it is really cute.

I took a lot of video and photos, I haven’t even looked at most of them. I will post some tonight and more tomorrow, maybe even the next day too!!

photos:
top: Gift shop and entrance to Sea Lion Caves
middle: statue at Sea Lion Caves
bottom: View from Heceta Head Lighthouse

Ahhhh.. back in the Sunshine

We made the big move today. We probably moved about a block but we are now in a more open area that gets sunshine. No more having to turn on lights all day long. It feels good. There are still trees around, just not as many. We also get satellite here, we seem to be somewhat on the edge of the signal but for as much TV as we watch it is fine.

Our move took up most of the morning. First we had to wait for the people that were in the site to leave. By the time they left we had most everything packed up we just had to pull in the slide, unhook electric & water, hook up to the pickup and move. Once we settled in it was noon. After lunch we took a walk over to the dog run area. When we got back I did a little pruning…some old dead blackberry vines with nasty thorns. They were right by our door and attacking as we would walk by. Then it was just relax and enjoy the sun. Another walk before dinner, another after dinner. And that about sums up the day!

photos:
top - Cheye in the dog run area
bottom - blackberries
video - our new spot at South Jetty

Laundry

Today’s activities ended up revolving around laundry. It started off simply enough, I decided to go do a couple loads of laundry. The washing part was fine. While the clothes were in the machine I found a puzzle someone had started so I was working on that when I met a woman from Yuma, AZ. We had a nice chat. I have heard good things about Yuma and would like to visit it sometime. Once the clothes were done I put them in the dryer and fed it enough quarters for about 40 minutes. I went back to the puzzle and conversation. After 40 minutes some of my clothes were partially dry, others were not. To make a long story short we discovered that the dryers were not working. These are propane dryers and the propane had some how run out so they were not getting any heat. :o( So I loaded up our soggy clothes and went back to the trailer. We went ahead and ate lunch and then drove into town to use the laundromat. After the clothes were dry (btw - I met someone else from the campground drying their clothes too!) we stopped at the market and bought groceries since we were in town. By the time we got home it was about 3:00. Just think, if the dryers had worked I could have come back to the trailer and done something worth while, like take a nap. :o) Just kidding, this way I got a couple chores taken care of.

Tomorrow we are going to see about moving sites. It means packing up stuff and then setting back up but I think it will be worth it. It clouded up and is raining so it’s really dark in our trailer today. It’s kind of like being in a cave and I really don’t care for caves! ;o)

photos:
Both were taken when going over the Siuslaw Bridge in Florence. The bridge opened in 1936 and is really beautiful. Hopefully while we are here I can find a place to get a better shot of the bridge itself.
video: Shots from around the South Jetty Campground here in Florence Oregon

Dinner and a Show

This morning Cheye and I went for a long walk all around the park. Dave & Cheye go for early walks (like about 6:00 a.m.) and Dave mentioned something about a pet run area. So when Cheye & I went about 10:00 a.m. we found the pet area so Cheye got to wander around and sniff everything unencumbered by a leash. From there we followed every little road we could find. We ended up at the entry gate and then headed back. After that it was the usual computing, lunch, talking about future places to visit and then some more computing.

No TV in this site, we are too deep in the trees. The Park Ranger told us we could move Monday if we couldn’t get satellite in the site we were assigned and we very well may take them up on it. Not so much because we get no satellite, more because we have no sun light! It’s very dark in the trees and the site we would move to is more open.

This evening the diner here at the park was serving a Prime Rib dinner, so we signed up. It was really good, Prime Rib, baked potato, veggies, roll and a salad all for $10.50. We sat with a couple from Massachusetts that had RV’d across the country. Nice couple. About an hour after dinner a guy named Dave Black, a local entertainer, sang and played the guitar for us all. It was quite an entertaining evening!

photos:
top: a view in the park
middle: our site here in Florence
bottom: the dinner crowd
video: our RV site here in Florence

South Jetty

The park here in Florence is called South Jetty. From what I have seen of it the park seems very pretty. Lots of trees and greenery, a beautiful Activity Center, pool, basketball, etc. They even have a diner with fairly inexpensive breakfast and dinners Thursday through Sunday.

The city of Florence looked very nice. A Safeway and Fred Meyer for general shopping and I read somewhere there is an “old town” area that is nice to explore. The big tourist thing here is the sand dunes. People bring, or rent, dune buggies and zoom up and down the dunes.

Our trip down was beautiful. Blue sky, sunshine along with the great vistas on Hwy. 101 was a great combination. As usual we got in about noon, set up and ate lunch. We took a short stroll through part of the park and then relaxed for the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow we will do a little more exploring. It’s fun to be somewhere new!


Photos:
Top: the Activity Center
Middle: the pool area
Bottom: sun rays through the trees as we left Pacific City
Video: clips from our trip down to Florence