Leaving Eugene we braved the rains and wind to head to the coast.  It’s a beautiful drive, past a covered bridge and follows the Siuslaw River out to Florence.

We parked the coaches at the Florence Elks RV park.  The sites here are very nice, spread out with trails around the perimeter. It’s $25 a night with power and water.  There are showers and bathrooms.  They have cable and Wi-Fi.

We drove to the end of South Jetty to access the beach on the first day. It’s a long, bumpy road but a nice beach at the end.  All along the route are staging areas for ORVs.  Walking the dogs we noticed all these spongy looking “fingers” laying in the sand.  Not sure what they were, it took a knowledgeable friend,  Dawn Roll Bailey to identify them.  They are pyrosomes and there were small and large ones, fascinating to pick up and check out.  They aren’t normally around in our waters, here is a news video on the phenomena http://www.kgw.com/news/local/pyrosome-sea-creatures-washing-up-on-oregon-coast/495041584

We met my sister, Cheryl and her husband, Ron for dinner at the Waterfront Depot.  They transplanted here over 18 years ago and love it still.

The menu at the Waterfront Depot had lots of delicious offerings…unfortunately, with my still having the flu, my sense of taste hadn’t returned. I chose to have their hamburger special which was $6. Cheryl and Ron had the same.   Janet had the crab encrusted halibut and Todd had the fish and chips.

Next door to the restaurant were lights decorating a small par.  It was beautiful to behold, with the bridge over the Siuslaw River as a back drop.

Next day rained all day, so Janet and I perused a few antique shops.  I found a beautiful lithograph of a Borzoi and let a Borzoi friend and fancier, Marian Broadhurst, know about it.  She ended up buying it and will have it shipped to her home.  Another treasure I found was a tile from Portugal.  Even though I believe it is a GSD it looks close enough for a Belgian to me. 🙂

Janet and I then met with my sister and her husband for lunch at Rosa’s, a Mexican restaurant in town.  It is family run and was delicious.

From there we all went back to the Elks RV park and I got to show my sister and her husband my RV and.  We then went to Janet and Todd’s coach and chatted awhile, before they headed home.

With dwindling daylight and the skies clear we loaded up and went for a quick tour around Darlingtonia State Natural Site, an 18 acre botanical park that is home to a special plant.  Here you follow a short boardwalk to a fen filled with  Darlingtonia californica, also known as the cobra lily.  It is a very unique looking carnivorous plant, and the only relative of the pitcher plant found in Oregon.

http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=81

We quickly returned back to Driftwood Shores and Heceta Beach.  The surf was still wild from the earlier storm, waves crashing and spray curling above the waves.  The dogs were able to get a good run in before the sun started to set, finishing a great visit to this area of Oregon.  Tomorrow we head to Winchester Bay, OR.