Bandon By The Sea

                                    

There is no place like Oregon!  17 years ago next month the Lord plucked me from Provo Utah and plopped me down right here in paradise.  I loved it so much, I never left!  Of course, meeting my husband here and having a family and business here in Oregon contributes to this being my permanent home.  One of the reasons that I love Oregon is that from where we live, we drive one hour towards the west and we get sights like you see above.  The Oregon coast is fantastic!

A week ago, my buddy Laurie and I took our kids down to Bandon, Oregon.  It is a 2-plus hour drive but it was worth it.  We rented a tiny cabin on the beach and let our kids play and explore.  Bandon is perhaps one of the most beautiful beaches on the Oregon Coast.  Parts of this beach can be spotted in the opening and closing scenes of the movie "Goonies."  (its one of our favorites).

After our 2 1/2 hour drive, the kids were anxious to be let loose from the car.  Though it was windy and a little cold, they kicked off their shoes and started racing into the sand.  

We tried to fly kites but believe it or not, it was TOO windy to fly them.  Our cheap little kites couldn't hold up to the strong coastal wind.

Before long, the kids were busy making forts with driftwood.  They even tried to dam up the fresh water stream that was flowing into the ocean but the shifting sand wouldn't let the water stay put.  They did this for hours.  It was fun to watch even my teenagers get into the fort building action.

You are never too old to play on the beach! These girls or so lucky to grow up here!

Later, we went into town to visit "Old Town" Bandon.  Our favorite store was Cranberry's Sweets.  It is a fudge and candy shop that has TONS of free samples everywhere you look!  We sampled SO much fudge.  Feeling a little guilty for sampling so much and not buying anything, we went back the next day and bought a bunch of Salt Water taffy.  The taffy, it turns out, is manufactured in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Hah!  We picked the one item not made here in Oregon.

This is our little beach house.  It was tiny and barely fit all of us but it was great!  We stayed up late into the night playing games and just listening to the ocean from our back door.  The best part was sleeping upstairs with the window wide open, being lulled to sleep by the sound of the surf.  Heavenly!

In the morning we went out to the beach again to explore while the tide was out.  Laurie had a tide tables book so we knew exactly when the water would be the lowest.  The beach looked so cool (and a  little creepy) with the water gone.  Allison LOVES the beach more than any of my kids and she was anxious to explore.  While I took some of the kids back to the Fudge shop, Laurie, Jenna, Charlotte and Allison discovered the caves that are normally filled with water.

Before leaving to drive home, we stopped at the FaceRock creamery.  There, we sampled all of the delicious cheeses and we had ice cream cones.  Yeah, we had ice cream for lunch!  It's vacation though, right?  After ice cream, the younger girls and I drove back home while Charlotte, Jenna and Laurie got to do this:

They stopped in Florence at the stables there and took a 90 minute ride on the beach.  It was an amazing experience for Charlotte!  What great friends we have!

Here is what has been happening in our lives for the last few weeks!