Bandon by the Sea

We spent the weekend camping near Bandon, a little town on the southern coast of Oregon. Since having lived in our camper for a whole month after the fire, we've regressed to tent camping. 13 years ago we spent our honeymoon in a tent and since then camping has been a big part of our life. It was like going home. Except we were in Oregon, not Texas, which is arguably friendlier for camping! No fire ants, no 100 degrees, no cactus, no scorpions ... shall I go on?

We spent a good part of the first day wandering the beach near the campground looking for rocks. I seem to have infected Jacob with my love for them, which warms the cockles of my heart. : ) Here are just a few from my new installment:

There is a magnificent display of haystacks (great big rocks in/near the ocean) in Bandon. We were still a ways from them when I took this picture, so you might not get a feel for their true size. Believe me when I say they are the size of buildings!

Here are a few fun shaped ones with a little rivulet running between.

And here's Jacob among some of the smaller rocks. Fortunately he ran into some boys about his age at the campground, so his social calender was set. Unfortunately, together they became a wild pack. Alone Jacob is a good kid. The pack pushed limits constantly, including trying to burn every single inappropriate thing (in the campfire) they could get their grubby little hands on. I'm so glad I have just one!

On the second day we got up early and went down to the beach for a super-duper low tide event that only happens once or twice a year during waking hours. We were able to get really close to this hole where the day before it was a tiny speck.

We also saw lots and lots of starfish, sea anemones, mussels, barnacles and other various sea creatures in the tide pools and clinging to the sides of the haystacks.

These 4 here looked to be doing some kind of crazy dance before they were exposed by the low tide. They seemed frozen in embarrassment.

The best part of the whole day (we all agreed) were the sea caves! It was so cool to see what the water can do to rock over time, and especially to see what most of the time is underwater.

We feel very fortunate that all this is only a 3 hour drive from where we live in Eugene. What lucky duckies we are!