Thursday, August 12, 2010

Bandon in July – Jackets required

After we left Toledo, Oregon, heading west, we stopped to visit Brad’s aunt and uncle, one more time, at their shop in Newport  (Lazerquick <- click, and you can go visit too!) before heading south to Bandon. Brad’s grandparents used to have a home in the area and Brad has many happy childhood memories there. I have also thoroughly enjoyed my previous visits. When we were deciding what to do for vacation this year, we asked the kids what they wanted to do… I asked them to make a list, and each came up with 4-5 ‘wants’. After ‘visit family’, which was most important to them(sweet kids!), ‘go to Sanibel and collect shells’ was their next priority. Amazingly, Disney did not make either list. Going to Florida was not on our agenda this year, so we decided to fit Bandon into the schedule. No shells there, and the weather is much chillier(!), but it’s a beach, was ‘on the way’, and so we stopped for several days, stayed in a very comfy rental cottage, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had to buy/wear jackets… and were still cold!… because the temps were in the mid to low 50’s the whole time we were there, with high humidity and winds making it feel colder, but it says something about the beauty of the place as we kept going back out to the beaches!

My guys.

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Rocks along the shore.

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Looking for starfish and chitons.

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We found barnacles and vegetation.

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The air was cold, the water was even colder… numbing cold… but it didn’t stop us from wading.

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Big rocks! The Oregon coast is incredibly different than the Florida beaches I grew up on.

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Dad leading the kids off to climb around a favorite rock.

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My handsome young man.

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Brad shows Honor what sort of critters live in tide pools.

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Honor, thinking about how to climb back around. It might not look very high, but we were 5-6ft up, the edge was slant-y and covered in sharp, slimy things, the water was several feet deep, COLD, and there some good waves coming in… falling wouldn’t have been fatal, but it would have been very uncomfortable! We all made the wander, back and forth, and I even managed to not drop the camera!

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Another small tidal pool to explore.

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Always take time to smell the wild beach roses.

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Did I mention that it was cold?

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… and so windy that the sand was blown away before the rocks on the surface could fall?

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The sand was blasting by mid-afternoon. Kids definitely felt it more as their eyes were closer to the sand.

The air was cold, we didn’t find many agates (lots of nice petrified wood and other pretty stones though), the wind was rough, climbing up the sand dunes to leave the beach was unkind to my broke-down knees (esp. considering the fact that I was unbalanced with a big bag of rocks in one hand, and was leading a very tired 7yo with the other!), and we definitely weren’t swimming, but what an amazingly beautiful beach adventure!

5 comments:

Jen said...

Looks like a lot of fun..sometimes the best beach adventures aren't centered around swimming...look forward to more pictures and hearing about your Cali visit!

jtwheel57 said...

Wow, guys! This brings back some special memories for me of times I've stopped along the Oregon coast years ago on my many trips between Riverside and W. Washington. There's really something magical about much of the seaside in Oregon. It's a place I could see myself living in retirement some day. Looks like you had a wonderful time there!

Connie said...

It is a beautiful area! I'm sorta looking forward to next year when we start talking to the kids about where they want to go again.. which beach area will call to them. :)

Expat Mom said...

Ok, you're officially making me a weensy bit homesick. These are essentially the beaches near my old home. It looks just like Tofino (the long sand beaches) and the rocks remind me of the island where I grew up, which is not that far from Bandon. Glad you guys had such a blast!

Connie said...

I'm happy that the kids have now had a chance to see a little of where both of their parents played as kids (Florida and Oregon). They're old enough to remember, and young enough to enjoy playing too. Now I am off to look up Tofino! :)