Last week we drove to the Coast, just for a day trip. It's only about 60 miles from home to Florence and from there just a few miles either North or South until you (usually) get a good view of the Pacific. Here's the bridge over the Siuslaw River at Florence.
Our plan was to get a coffee in Old Town Florence and then drive North until we made sure the Ocean was still there.
The coffee shop has a lovely little patio and a great view of the Bridge. Then just a few steps away, there's a viewpoint where we watched some harbor seals but didn't get a good picture. We checked out the Purple Martin apartment complex and that population seemed to be thriving. Can you see two of them in the picture?
Next we drove North and almost as soon as we left the city limits of Florence we hit fairly heavy fog! We were almost disappointed in our quest to actually see the Pacific for the first time this year. (The umpteen-millionth in our lifetime but it never gets old). I've never seen the turnouts along this stretch as empty. No cars and no photographers. We did get a glimpse or two of the ocean, but always on a curve where it was impossible to pull over. The picture below is one from last year -- same stretch of the highway, better viewing day.
But after all these years and in spite of our annual "checking out the Ocean" tradition, we actually know that it will still be there when we come back -- sooner this time!
The fog was really a surprise because it was a beautiful day in Florence. Lovely walking weather (cooler than at home in Eugene, which was a good thing.) When we could turn around we headed back to the blue sky and spent some time walking around Old Town Florence. There are fun little shops and windows to browse and summer flowers always seem to bloom more brightly in the cooler coastal weather.
Great restaurants too, but I didn't get a picture of the delicious early dinner we enjoyed . We didn't have to look as hard for ours as this pretty Great Egret did.
It was a good day. There's never a bad one on a visit to the Oregon Coast.
Thank you to the hosts of these sharing opportunities:
MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS
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