20. Sunday August 31-Labor day weekend

We left Wayne and Nita's house about 7:45, knowing Wayne was close to half-way through a 13.1 mile half marathon. Our goal for the day was to reach the west coast, turn left and wander.

Boy, did we wander. We drove through the Suislaw National Forest for 51 miles from their house to the coast and were surrounded by trees right up to the road almost the entire time. Logging roads (gravel) ran for about 5 miles of that distance. During that entire ride, we saw only one vehicle and that was a jeep with two hunters.

We had breakfast off the beaten track in Pacific City, sharing a table with a young couple from Portland who were spending the week at a cabin on the beach owned by one of the families. Great conversation and the kind of fabulous breakfast in a tiny diner from the past.We found a small grocery store and bought cheese and a Dr. Pepper for lunch later on. We also found a bakery, the "Greatful Bread" and bought an oven-fresh baguette.

Over 5 and 1/2 hours driving time between 7:45 and 4:45, we only drove 168 miles. We must have stopped at at least 27 different pullouts to OHHH and AHHH at the coast line. There are only three words to describe what we saw today.

Ah. Maze. Ing.

We stopped for lunch at "Historic Nye Beach", historic according to the sign on the highway. Don't know about historic but very charming with a long, white beach.

Nye beach overlook for lunch

This section of the Oregon coast is famous for sand dunes. We pulled off 101 at the first opportunity and climbed a dune to see the ocean. It was foggy along the coast and we could not see much of the surrounding countryside. As we were going back to the car, the fog partially lifted and we were treated to our first view of offshore rock formations.

Up the dune

Out of the mist

Rising like a ghost

We wandered down the coast, stopping many times to see the rock formations and dunes. At one stop in Devoe Bay, we saw our first whale. In 5 1/2 hours, we drove only 165 miles

We stayed at a mon-n-pop motel in Florence, the Park Motel. It was from the 1960's with pine paneling. Exceptionally clean and quiet. The WiFi was slow and that is the only drawback.

We found out Wayne finished 1st in his age category and his team won first overall.

 

 Tomorrow---more wandering along Oregon, heading for California.