11-24 to 11-27-2020 Bandon Thanksgiving and a night at Harris Beach

Don’t forget that you can click on any photo if you wish to see if full resolution in my gallery

Site A47 had more privacy than we expected

Between the time we made our reservation and our trip to the coast, COVID numbers began rising in Oregon and the governor once again shut down restaurants for indoor dining.  One of the reasons we chose Bandon over Brookings for this trip was to have an opportunity to spend some time in the little shops and restaurants that make Bandon so charming.  The weather forecast was for rain most of the week, so we wanted to have other things to do than walk the beach.

We traveled north via I-5 toward Roseburg and turned west toward the coast via Highway 42.  However, instead of following the Google Girl directions to stay on Highway 42 all the way to HWY 101 and then back south, we thought the quicker route along 42 S made more sense.  In hindsight, Google Girl sometimes gets it right and we don’t.  I spent most of the time hanging on while Mo navigated the very narrow, very winding road toward Bandon.  It was not fun for me, but I think it might have been for her.  She used to drive a TR7 among other sports cars.

Don’t try this route in a motorhome

It rained a bit along the way, but the afternoon was dry enough that we had time to enjoy a walk along the beach after we settled into our site.

The campground is about a mile from easy beach access at the Coquille River Lighthouse

We were a bit disappointed in the condition of the lighthouse

Adjacent to the town of Bandon, the Coquille River empties into the Pacific Ocean. The river extends inland a great distance and was a natural link to the virgin stands of timber in the area, but the bar at the mouth of the river, formed by the interaction of the river and ocean, was a major obstacle for ships entering the river. At times, only a few feet of water would cover the bar, but vessels still attempted to navigate the river in hopes of reaping the rewards that lay upstream. In 1880, Congress passed a bill funding the construction of a jetty on the south side of the river’s entrance that created a deep channel, resulting in a rapid rise in the number of ships entering the river.

A lighthouse at the entrance to Coquille River was the next logical step for improving navigation. Congress appropriated $50,000 for the project on March 3, 1891, but it would be four years before land was purchased, plans were solidified, and the construction crew was assembled.

In 1939, the Coast Guard assumed responsibility for Coquille River Lighthouse and decided it was no longer needed. An automated beacon was placed at the end of the south jetty, the dwelling was disassembled, and the lighthouse was abandoned. The lighthouse stood neglected for twenty-four years, until Bullards Beach State Park was created on the north side of the river. The grounds of the original eleven-acre light station were included in the park, and the park assumed responsibility for the lighthouse.

Over the years there have been several attempts at restoration, since park funding isn’t sufficient to maintain the old lighthouse.  In normal years, the lighthouse tower is open for visitation from May through September, however at the moment the old lighthouse looked quite sad.

The air smelled so incredibly fresh, and the surf was loud enough that we could hear it in camp across the dunes at least half a mile from the beach where we were camped. 

There were high tide and surf warnings posted for the next couple of days so one evening we drove through town in the dark to the south jetty where we could watch the huge noisy waves breaking over the jetty rocks.  Lots of warnings for “sneaker waves” kept me alert and when a big one came roaring in I immediately jumped back into the car.

It rained off and on that first night and the next morning dawned cloudy and wet. We settled into the MoHo for a cozy morning before driving the a mile south to Bandon to explore the small town.  The rain came and went all day, usually with a downpour at just the moment we would head for the car after visiting a shop.  About half the shops in town were open, with masks and social distancing, and we especially enjoyed the beautiful Second Street Gallery, Winter River Bookstore, and the Coastal Mist Chocolate Boutique, where we had two tiny cups of creamy drinking chocolate, to go of course. 

This photo is from last year when there was still inside service

The rain poured down as we ran to the car with our little cups of chocolate. I also purchased my first ever macaron (not a macaroon).  I wasn’t impressed, although I do think that maybe the high humidity at the ocean makes it hard to make a light crispy meringue cookie. Who knows.  I don’t have to try again.

We then meandered around the famous Cranberry Sweets.  The store has been in Bandon for more than 50 years and specializes in all sorts of cranberry confections.  I learned that more cranberries are grown around Bandon than anywhere else in the west. Although Bandon is referred to as “The Cranberry Capitol of the World”, more research informed me that most cranberries come from Wisconsin and Massachusetts. Five states grow almost all of the country’s supply of cranberries with Wisconsin producing more than half of all cranberries in the US.  Massachusetts harvests another third, and New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington produce most of the rest.  So much for “Cranberry Capitol”.

Still, the shop was charming and old fashioned, with lots of candies and confections behind the counters.  The hostess told me that they usually had lots of samples around the shop but due to COVID we had to settle for a little bag of free stuff. 

I decided it was time to get some fish and chips to go and tried out Tony’s Crab Shack where I was politely told that Tony didn’t fry ANYTHING, and perhaps I might like to try to fish tacos. Made with fresh caught crab and halibut, they were delicious.  Everything in town was take-out only, with all the restaurants closed for inside seating. We returned home in the pouring rain and it continued to rain all night long.  Funny how wonderful rain on the roof of a motorhome can sound, especially when accompanied by the roar of the ocean.  Great for a good night’s sleep!

The next morning was Thanksgiving, and we woke to beautiful clear skies.  I had precooked much of our dinner, and simply had to reheat the turkey, bake the sweet potato, mash the potatoes, and cook a pot of Stove-Top stuffing, and open a jar of gravy.  It wasn’t gourmet, but was completely and totally delicious for the two of us and our socially distanced Thanksgiving dinner.

On our first day in camp I discovered the tsunami evacuation trail.  The path is narrow with signs leading to an area high on a heavily timbered hill behind the campground where people are instructed to assemble if the tsunami warning horns go off.  It would do no good to attempt to drive out of the campground in that situation since most of the highway is in the tsunami zone.

It was a lovely little trail, with moist moss, mushrooms in the duff under the trees.  On this beautiful morning it was a perfect time to share the trail with Mo.  Mattie loved the trail and we enjoyed walking in a place where there were no dogs or people around.  Mattie gets so excited when she sees other dogs and always wants to “play”.  That entails lots of energy and training time, trying to get her to sit and calm down.  Walking around the campground can be challenging sometimes when all I want is a nice simple walk.  The trail was perfect for that.

It was surprising how full the campground was on this holiday weekend.  By the time Thursday rolled around, all sites were full and everyone seemed to be having a great time celebrating.  We even saw an outdoor TV broadcasting a football game. 

After our early afternoon dinner we went for another great beach walk, and were amazed that the weather was so perfect.  There was very little wind and the temps must have been in the 50’s.  Beautiful day. 

Home again to the MoHo where after many years of hearing about it, I actually figured out how to cast the phone to the TV with the included app on my Samsung phone.  We turned on Netflix on the phone, and with our unlimited Verizon plan we were able to watch movies and even live television on the big TV with the right apps.  My daughter Deanna told me about this capability a long time ago, but I never managed to figure it out until this trip. On a chilly evening having some TV was great entertainment.  The Verizon signal in the park was perfectly adequate to stream a movie.

Bullard’s Beach State Park has some beautiful picnic areas

On Friday morning we took our time with a lazy breakfast, a little bit of news, and some reading time before packing up.  Checkout time wasn’t until 1PM, and we only had a little over two hours to travel along the coast south toward Brookings and Harris Beach State Park.  I didn’t make a reservation for Harris Beach, thinking that winter on the coast would be open without a problem.  We planned to arrive around 2 in plenty of time to snag an open site before evening.  Things have changed in the camping world!  When we arrived the park was completely full except for one site, the only ADA site in the park, number 37 in the B loop.

I must say I was grateful for once to have my little blue disability card to hang from our windshield.  We settled in to enjoy our last evening on the beach and Mo built a nice big campfire.  Only problem with the campfire is that the ADA site has a very tall metal fire ring, I suppose so that it is safer.  It took a very long time to get that metal warm and I spent campfire time in LOTS of clothes and blankets trying to warm up.

One of our favorite holiday treats are the wonderful lights at Azalea Park in Brookings.  We knew that this year the big light show wasn’t happening, but the city of Brookings was attempting to do something at least and made arrangements for businesses that usually displayed their lights at Azalea Park to put lights up on both sides of Highway 101 and down into Harbor.  We hopped into the Tracker at dusk to go check out the show.  I must say that it was a bit of a bust.  There were a few nice lights near Fred Meyer, but the rest of them were scattered along the road with lots of space in between displays.  Oh well, at least they tried.  We heard the next morning that someone had stolen one of the big displays on the very first night of the show, the 4 piece Dragon.  So sad.  Maybe that is why so many businesses chose not to display their lights in the unprotected lots along the highway.  Eventually the dragon was recovered.

Here is a photo of the dragon from the park show last year

The next day we didn’t have to check out until 1PM and with no rush to get back home we enjoyed every last minute of park time.  I took Mattie around the campground, and walked out toward the overlook that has such a beautiful view of Harris Beach.  I felt no need to climb down to the water. 

There were so many people on the beach I was amazed.  More people and dogs running around on Harris Beach than we have ever seen even in summer.  I guess as many people have said, RVing is the great COVID escape and everyone and their dog or dogs is on the road and filling up the campgrounds.

We left in brilliant sunshine, driving as far as Cave Junction about 30 miles west of Grants Pass before we encountered the fog.  Grants Pass is often foggy in winter, sometimes without any lifting in the afternoon.  This was one of those days.  I always say, if we must have fog, we might as well have it at the beach.  It was nice to get home to our cozy house, the steamy hot tub, and TV without having to figure out the casting thing.  It was a great four days of ocean time, and a perfect way to handle a quiet Thanksgiving for just the two of us.

01-29-2020 Visiting Point Reyes National Seashore

I recently read a blog from Nickie about their visit to Point Reyes National Seashore back in 2015. It looked wonderful, and as we planned our trip south I made sure that we would spend an extra day on the road to enjoy the park. I didn’t think I had been there in the past, but when I perused old photos I found that on our very first trip to California together, Mo and I visited Drake’s Beach, right in the middle of the sanctuary.

It was a long time ago, back in 2004, and it was a short side trip on our route south. Mo didn’t remember our visit either. It’s a good thing I have photos or I wouldn’t remember much at all, especially in the days before blogging. I am pretty sure there is a journal entry back home in our old leather journal, but that doesn’t help much when on the road.

We began our morning with a short jaunt from the campground to the Bear Valley Visitor Center. The building is architecturally lovely, with lots of tall glass windows reflecting light in all directions. We first stopped at the information desk where a very knowledgeable park ranger answered our many questions about visiting the park. I was especially curious about the geology of the area, and without a moment’s hesitation she explained the “accreted terranes”, mentioned John McPhee’s book “Assembling California”, and offered a book with a great geologic map of the area. Such a delight.

I had been trying to think of the term “accreted terranes” for many miles during the previous day as we drove along the highway and Mo asked me about the geology. Imagine a bunch of dishes on a table, and tilt that table and watch them all slide together, mashing up into a big mess, then heat it up a bit, watch them melt and resolidify and become part of the table next to them. The American Plate and the Pacific Plate come together here on either side of the San Andreas Fault which runs through the park. Driving down the coast, we are on the American Plate, driving out to Point Reyes, we are on the Pacific plate. I love geology, can you tell?

We wandered through the exhibits, enjoying the panoramas, the information about the plants and animals in the park, and marveling at some truly spectacular garbage art decorating one of the hallways.

Point Reyes is located just north of San Francisco Bay and covers more than 100 square miles of coastal wilderness. The park preserves the natural ecosystems, native plant and animal species, and cultural heritage sites that are part of a diminishing undeveloped western coastline of the United States. There is a LOT to see, much more than we would be able to manage in our one day of visiting.

We spent most of our time exploring as much of the area that we could access and marveled at the incredible diversity of the landscape. There are vast beaches, grasslands, salt and freshwater marshes, coniferous forests, and magnificent granite headlands. We learned that there are more than 1,000 species of plants and animals that are protected here.

The park also contains several historic farmhouses, barns, and creameries that have been preserved as cultural heritage sites and are still in operation.

We couldn’t decide which way to go first, thinking we would head north toward the Tule Elk Reserve area but somehow missed the turn. Instead we traveled west through some rough roads toward the lighthouse. Along the way we stopped at North Beach, and then South Beach. Our friendly park ranger had drawn specific areas that were accessible to dogs on a leash on our map. Mattie was appreciative.

The lighthouse wasn’t open for tours on the day of our visit. I am reasonably certain that even if it had been open I wouldn’t have managed the more than 300 steps down. Just over a year ago, I could climb all the steps in Florence, but this year is a bit different. My legs aren’t working quite right and I am in the midst of the long process of diagnosis. Sticks are now required for balance and lots of stairs are now off the table. But that is another story for another time. In the mean time, I do what I can, and after our day at Point Reyes, I happily noted that I managed to walk 3.5 miles, but not all at once.

The lighthouse is high above the ocean, but far below the high point of the headland where our trail led to a breathtaking viewpoint overlooking the lighthouse and the entire coast. It was built in 1870, but retired from service in 1975 when many lighthouses were automated due to the rising costs of manning and maintaining them.

Point Reyes is the windiest place on the Pacific Coast and the second foggiest place on the North American Continent. Weeks of fog, especially during the summer months, reduce visibility to a few hundred feet. The Point Reyes Headlands, jutting ten miles out to sea, are a threat to ships entering or leaving San Francisco Bay. The Point Reyes Lighthouse has warned mariners of danger for more than 100 years.

After our visit to the lighthouse, we meandered slowly along the somewhat rough and narrow road to the elephant seal overlook. A short hike to a viewing platform is accompanied by the snorts and squeals and calls of the seals, long before they come into view. I made the mistake of leaving our binoculars in the MoHo for this trip, silly me, and was only able to see the pups through the telephoto lens of the camera.

We returned to a road that led to the highest point of the reserve. The Point Reyes Peninsula is geogically separated from the rest of Marin County and almost all of the Continental United States by the rift zone of the San Andreas Fault, part of which is sunk below sea level and forms Tomales Bay. The bay was barely visible through the late afternoon fog from the summit of Mt Wittenberg, at just over 1,400 feet elevation.

It was getting late in the day, but we still hoped to see some marshy muddy wetlands and find some shore birds. Driving back west, into the setting sun, we dropped down rapidly to sea level toward Limontour Beach, where a trail adjacent to the marsh promised great views of birds. We could see a few in the distance, but up close observation would have required more hiking and the day was drawing to a close. I did manage a photo of a pair of ducks and one last view of beach.

We traveled back east up the 17 percent grade, happy that the sun was at our backs, and arrived at camp after sunset. I would love to return and spend more time walking the trails and enjoying this beautiful place. At this time of year it was wide open and uncrowded, but a bit cool. Warmer temperatures later in the season would no doubt bring out more crowds. For the time being, I am grateful for two nights at Olema Campground that gave us a full day to explore Point Reyes National Seashore.

03-06-2019 Saint Augustine Treasures

Current Location: Jacksonville NAS campground, Jacksonville, Florida
Brilliant sunshine, breezy, and a high of 54 degrees F

Actually, the “real” current location as I write is home at Sunset House in Grants Pass Oregon.  I did a decent job of keeping up the blog during our travels, all except for this visit to Saint Augustine.  One of the most difficult parts of writing this particular story is the overwhelming amount of fascinating history that is associated with the city of Saint Augustine, and with each of the beautiful buildings that we visited.

As I attempted to write, I found myself getting completely overwhelmed, and have decided that instead of rehashing all the history of each of the places we visited, I will add links that you can peruse at your leisure if you are interested.  I’ll write what we saw and how we felt, and if you want the rest of the story, you can follow the links.  It is the only way I will ever get this post completed.

When we once again piled into the Tracker for the trip across the bay from Jacksonville to Saint Augustine, we were more prepared for another expected cold day.  I wore shoes and warm socks and dug my winter coat out of the storage bin in the Tracker to brave the chill.  Coats and warm shoes and socks made a big difference but the sunshine was an additional bonus in spite of the chill.

The Casa Monica Hotel was impressive both inside and out.

Arriving a bit early for our 10AM tour, we wandered the streets nearby, enjoying the complexity and loveliness of this part of the city. We delighted ourselves with a coffee and shared a pastry at the luxurious Casa Monica Hotel.  I walked around the lobby, feeling a bit nervous looking for the bathroom, expecting to be expelled from the hotel as a lowly tourist rather than someone staying there. 

St George Street was beautifully quiet at this early morning hour, and we enjoyed a view of the Basilica from the outside, waiting for the Ash Wednesday services to end so we could visit the lovely interior later in the day.

We discovered later in the afternoon that visiting St George Street was much like any other busy tourist town, with lots of stores full of “stuff” and lots of people.  It wasn’t a place we chose to hang out for long.

Later in the day on St George Street

The magnificent Ponce De Leon Hotel was built between 1885 and 1887 by Henry M. Flagler, the hotel and railroad magnate whose activities contributed greatly to the development of Florida’s eastern coastal area. Upon entering through the main doors, the magnificence of the lobby and the beautiful dome is overwhelming.  Covered with gold leaf and painted with gorgeous murals, surrounded by hand carved oak pillars, and underlain by stone and marble floors, it is as luxurious and opulent as almost anything we have seen anywhere in the world.

The interior of the hotel is decorated with imported marble, carved oak, and gorgeous murals. The stained glass windows were created by Louis Tiffany of New York.

We were escorted on our tour by a student who explained to us the history of the hotel, the history of how it was converted to Flagler College in 1968, and several tidbits about the artists, the interior and the construction of the hotel and what it was like living there as a student.

Can you imagine eating meals every day in this room?

We visited the dining room, surrounded by Tiffany windows, elaborately sculptured dining tables and chairs where students went about their business, well used to the groups of gawking visitors.

We were shown the beautiful ballroom, with portraits of Flagler and his wives, and examples of the kind of dress that was expected when one went to dinner at the hotel, mingling in the parlor for the women and of course the cigar smoking library for the men.

We then viewed the courtyard and listened to stories of a hotel with running water and electricity in every room, in the late 1800’s, completely unheard of.  We enjoyed the fine details of design, with overlapping themes of shells and water, with a frog pond that also functioned as a sundial. 

I highly recommend making time for the student guided tour, worth the effort, and a wonderful way to experience the hotel more deeply than you might just wandering through on your own.

After completing our tour of Flagler College, we walked a few blocks west to explore the beautiful Memorial Presbyterian Church. Another of Flagler’s masterpieces, the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church was built by Henry Flagler in 1889. It is one of his most significant projects, because it was constructed as a memorial to Flagler’s only daughter, Jenny. The mausoleum adjacent to the church is where Flagler, his daughter, granddaughter and first wife are buried.

The stained glass windows are breathtaking, and while not done by Tiffany himself, they were created by his protegé who also worked with Tiffany on the windows at the Ponce de Leon Hotel.

After our visit to the church, we wandered back in the direction of St George Street and the Cathedral Basilica.  It was Ash Wednesday, so the sanctuary was basically off limits to casual tourists, but we were allowed to enter during the services as long we we were quiet and respectful. 

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine is home of the oldest parish of a permanent European settlement in the country. I wasn’t able to get to the front of the church during the service but did manage to take a couple of photos from where we sat quietly in the rear.

We followed Pam’s suggestion to skip the trolley stops in favor of walking the downtown area, meandering along St George street toward the Castillo.  We were getting a bit worn, and knew we had yet to see two more iconic sites in St Augustine. On the previous day we had passed an Irish pub along the main street, and with a quick check with Google Earth, realized we were right on the path to another place to warm up with lunch and an Irish Coffee.

Meehan’s Irish Pub was just the ticket for a chilly day in March.  We ignored the open air porch on the second floor and instead settled into a nice little corner table by the window downstairs.

Instead of Irish coffee, we decided on cold beer, and with Guinness on tap I couldn’t resist.  Mo had something else since she isn’t a dark beer lover.  Irish chips and corned beef egg roll appetizers were a great lunch.

Thus fortified, we were ready to continue our day of sightseeing and walked a few blocks down the street toward the beautiful Castillo de San Marcos. The fort looked much more inviting on this lovely sunny day that it had on the previous day shrouded in cloudy skies.  The temperatures were almost warm enough that we could open up our coats!

Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest masonry fort and the best preserved example of a Spanish colonial fortification in the continental United States. Much of the history of Saint Augustine and of Florida in general is contained in the history of this dramatic fort. It protected Saint Augustine from pirate raids, and from Spain’s major rival, Great Britain, during a time when the Florida-Georgia-Carolina coastline was an explosive international battleground.

Spain built the Castillo de San Marcos to counter the attempts by the British to take Florida.  Begun in 1672 and completed in 1695, the fort replaced the nine wooden forts that had protected Saint Augustine since its founding.

The design and construction of the fort was so amazing that it was never actually taken in battle, with ownership of the fort only occurring through treaties and agreements.  It withstood several sieges, and never actually fell to an enemy.

The fort is small but quite beautiful, constructed from blocks carved from coquina, a shell filled limestone that is somewhat soft. The simple square design is fortified by diamond shaped bastions on each of the 4 corners, sloping walls that descend to a moat, and cannon arranged so that they can fire in overlapping directions.

Photo from Wikipedia showing the design of the fort with it’s diamond shaped bastions

A story that each of the trolley drivers loved to tell was how the British would shoot cannon balls at the fort, and they would simply stick in the soft rock.  The Spaniards would retrieve the balls from the walls and shoot them back at the British. 

The laughter was a reply to my question if they use 6 pound cannonballs for the reenactments.

We enjoyed exploring the fort,  and watching the short theater presentation of the re enactment of shooting the big cannons.  We later spoke to a ranger in period dress who said they shoot the cannons every weekend, but the neighbors across the inlet didn’t like the cannonballs, so there are only 1/2 pound balls shot instead of the 6 pound balls that the cannons can shoot for a distance of more than a mile and a half.

It was getting late in the day when we returned Old Town Trolley for a ride through town back to our car. 

Although there is a trolley bus that will cross the Bridge of Lions to the St Augustine Lighthouse, we wanted to be independent of any kind of schedule and take our time visiting.

Across the Bridge of Lions to the lighthouse

Once back to the Tracker, we settled into the fairly heavy traffic flow south through town and toward the bridge.  We were lucky enough to miss any kind of drawbridge lift, and in no time were across the inland waterway toward the beautiful lighthouse.

Even this late in the day, parking was tight, but we managed to find one of the last spots in the tiny parking lot at the lighthouse.  The museum is lovely, the grounds are beautiful, but the most fun of course is the 218 step climb up the winding stairs to the top of the lighthouse. 

It really isn’t a bad climb, with nice wide landings about every 20 steps or so and plenty of room to pass people going up and down.  Nothing like those towers that daughter Deanna and I climbed in Italy last fall!

The best part of the climb is the gorgeous 360 views of Saint Augustine and the barrier islands between the lighthouse and the Atlantic Ocean.  We could see some rather amazing kayaking routes from that height, but knew that this time around, those paddle routes would be left to other boaters.

We also saw a tree full of nesting spoonbills and wood storks at the Alligator Farm down below us a few miles south along the highway.  Without any desire to pay another entrance fee, and to try to park and deal with crowds, we let our desire to view of the birds go.

It had been a very long day, with an overload of gorgeous architecture, complex history, lots of walking and climbing, and we still had to get back through Jacksonville traffic to get home.

I haven’t even come close to talking about all the other “attractions”  (the ones we didn’t visit, that are part of seeing Saint Augustine.  There is the Fountain of Youth, the Potter’s Wax Museum, Ripley’s very first Believe It Or Not, the Old Jail and the Oldest Store and Museum, There is the Alligator Farm, Mission of Nombre de Dios and the Our Lady of La Leche Shrine. There is the Spanish Military Hospital Museum, the St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum, the St Augustine Aquarium, scenic cruise tours, private sailing charters, pirate ship adventures, helicopter tours, and zipline canopy adventures. Food and drink are everywhere, with breweries, restaurants, hotels and B and B’s filling in what few spaces are left.  It is a busy place, feels somewhat like Disneyland at times, and it takes planning and some discipline to not get overwhelmed, especially with just a short visit. 

Completing this post feels somewhat like I felt that last day that we visited Saint Augustine.  Wonderful, a bit overwhelming, a bit exhausting, and yet something I am so glad we did.  I am also very glad that I did write this post instead of following my temptation to just skip it and let my photos be my own personal reminder of our time in this beautiful historic city.