Lighthouses and turning garbage into art

 I have always had a thing for lighthouses. And Oregon is all about their lighthouses.  

Driving down the Coast of this beautiful state gives a person plenty of chances to visit these lovely old places. They all feel like they could tell stories.  I love how they are carefully maintained by their local communities and how each lighthouse lists all of the keepers who lived there.  In the last several days I saw the lighthouse at Heceta Head (near Florence.  The photo from far away feels very dreamlike, which mist shrowding the lighthouse.


Today, I saw the lighthouse at the Coquille River (near Bandon) and the beautiful one at Cape Blanco.

 
 

Other trip highlights so far:
I reunited with a couple of old friends of mine on the beach in Newport.  It felt really good to see each other after all these years (and yeah, it was windy out there!)

I stayed on a riverboat in Newport, which was utterly beautiful. The fog rolled in while I was there. The shot out my stateroom is the bridge nearby.




Then yesterday I had a delightful kayak on the Siltcoos River (near Florence). It was peaceful and very different than my kayaking back home!




Bandon was fabulous.  My room had a fantastic view of the rocks on the beach. Check out the photo below of the infamous "Face Rock". Before I headed south, I visited the Bandon Historical Museum, which was a huge collection of antiques and memories, many of them from a fire destroyed the entire town in 1936.  Then I went to Washed Ashore, a great place that collects garbage on the beach and turns it into art! See some of the photos below.  Here is their site: https://www.washedashore.org/







Heading out of Bandon, I saw the famous "Natural Bridge" below, outside of Gold Beach, before arriving in Brookings.  I am here for the next two days as I start my Redwoods exploration across the border!

So excited!  Will share a Redwoods update next!












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