“There is no bad weather, only inappropriate dress” – Oregon coastal saying from the Pacific Coast Scenic Byway brochure

We finally arrived in beautiful Oregon.

And, Island Girl, who was originally purchased new in Oregon (she wound up in Colorado where we found her) has returned home at least for a little while.

Our campground is in Bullard’s Beach State Park in the town of Bandon, which we read about on the blog Wheeling It.

On our first day, we explored old town Bandon, a few square blocks with shops and restaurants, some in restored buildings. There is a boardwalk that runs along the waterfront where the Coquille River empties into the ocean. The town is very cute and compact.

We are assembling quite a collection of these funny cutout pictures :-).

A standout little restaurant was Tony’s Crab Shack and Seafood Grill on the waterfront.  We love little seafood shacks on the water, although this one doesn’t have a view.  But lunch was fresh and good and we also bought fresh oysters and clams for my birthday dinner.

We also found a fabulous chocolatier – Coastal Mist Chocolate Boutique. Oh boy, that was a dangerous find. Hector bought a couple of yummy individual cakes for my birthday and a few beautiful chocolates. And we had some very fine hot chocolates there.

That evening, Hector made the most delicious Cosmopolitans to begin my birthday celebration. Followed by dinner which included raw oysters, steamed clams and artichokes. And, of course, the fabulous chocolate desserts! Yum! It was much better than any fancy restaurant could have been.

It was quite windy when we arrived in Bandon. Not windy enough to have to stay inside, but just enough to be bothersome.

But we still spent time out on the beach most days. The state park had a trail to a gorgeous beach. Because of the high surf, we kept Angel on leash. She loves to walk on the water’s edge, but she’s not a water dog, and there were lots of warnings about “sneaker waves” so I didn’t want to take a chance.

It was a huge beach and the only other people we encountered on the beach were a couple of folks on horseback – very romantic.  Since we forgot Angel’s travel bowl and it was a ¾ mile trail back to the campground, we found a deep shell to use for her water. She looked so cute sipping out of the seashell!

We also visited the beach in town a few times. There are actually several public access points to this other gorgeous beach.

And we got to observe seals and their pups once again. Getting too close can spook the mother seals and cause them to abandon their pups, so we only observe them from a distance through our binoculars and long lens. The pups should be a couple of months old at this point and are pretty big and fat – adorable!

The scenery in Oregon was just as spectacular as northern California with lots of huge rocks out on the water.

The next few days became even windier. In fact, when we went to the fish market to get some fresh fish they were running low on their fresh fish because the fishermen hadn’t been out for a few days.

But we found a semi-sheltered beach in town where we could hide behind a large rock during our walks. Angel loved to run with the wind at her back, but was not happy going back into the wind.

During this windy time, we saw a Coast Guard rescue training exercise. This is the second time we see the Coast Guard on a rescue mission, the first time was actually a real rescue in San Diego.

There is a sandbar at the mouth of the Coquille River, which shifts and can be quite dangerous. This is where the training exercise took place.  The wind was howling at 30 + mph and the surf was high.   

A helicopter flew low close to the water so that a Coast Guardsman could leap into the water to “rescue” a swimmer.

The Coast Guardsman then helped the swimmer get to a Coast Guard boat that was stopped in the water near the sand bar, an impressive feat in itself in these high winds.

We thought the exercise was over but then the helicopter came in to hover in a pretty precarious spot just above the water.  Then, incredibly, the Coast Guard rescue swimmer jumped off the boat and swam against the tide and wind to a spot where the helicopter lowered a sling and lifted him back.

Needless to say, a crowd had formed to watch this rousing display of daring and skill.  Once again, we are so impressed by the Coast Guard, they rock!

Next, we visited the Coquille River Light, an adorable little lighthouse that was lit in 1896 to guide ships past that same nasty sandbar.

The lighthouse is pretty unique; it’s a cylindrical tower attached to an octagonal building that used to house fog signal equipment.  The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1939 and its original light, a fourth-order Fresnel lens was removed. It was abandoned for years and sat in disrepair but several restoration projects since 1976 have brought it back to life.   It’s cute and compact, just like the town.

We returned to the semi-sheltered beach for sunset, a challenging photography session for Hector due to the heavy wind. And, because it was a very clear night, sunset was a bit subtle, but beautiful.

While in Bandon, I found out that a couple of other bloggers, Leigh and Brian, whom we’d never met, were at Cape Blanco State Park.  Hector and I planned to visit the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, so I sent them a message and we planned a rendezvous.

We took a tour of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse, the oldest continually operating lighthouse in Oregon, first lit in 1870. The lighthouse is located on the most westerly point in Oregon at 245 feet above sea level on a headland bordered by dramatic cliffs.

The road out to this windy and dramatic point reminded me of the setting of another lighthouse in New Brunswick, Canada named Cape Enrage, that we visited last summer, although the lighthouses themselves are very different.

Cape Blanco Lighthouse’s original first-order Fresnel lens has been replaced by a second-order Fresnel lens. But the working second-order Fresnel lens is quite a marvel.

Afterwards, we drove through the state park to check the campground out.  And that is where we bumped into Leigh and Brian, whom we were planning to meet at a restaurant called the Crazy Norwegian. Although we weren’t sure it was them, we recognized their dog, Curtis, whose photographs frequently grace their blog, Aluminarium.

It’s always fun to meet fellow bloggers and full timers.  Leigh and Brian have a beautiful Airstream Trailer, and are another young couple who work on the road.  We had such a great time with them!

On our last day in Bandon, we went to the farmers market. It’s a small market but we found a few nice things, including some very yummy cheesecake. Bandon was turning out to be quite fattening.

Then we headed out for one last sunset at the beach where we had watched the sunset a few evenings earlier. Another clear and windy day but the sunset was a bit brighter and the setting was spectacular.

Island Girl’s homecoming is turning out to be pretty fabulous.

~ Brenda