Florence, Oregon

After a surprisingly good sleep in a mediocre hotel, I went to have some of the supplied breakfast (basically bagels and coffee in the tiny reception area). Newport wasn't quite as good as we thought it would be, so we have higher hopes for the next few destinations. After packing up all the drying laundry we had scattered around the room, we continued on our way!

Our first stop was a viewpoint to look at the Yaquina Bay Bridge. The misty environment made it an awesome photo stop, and it was well worth it. Our drive today took us along Cape Perpetua to the town of Yachats. I'm not really sure why I listed it as a place worth visiting, as it was a pretty sleepy venue. At least it was good for a bathroom stop.

The coast scenery we saw today was wonderful, and the weather was too. When we reached our stop at the town of Florence, we weren't that impressed. The Lighthouse Inn where we are staying is modest luxury...from the 1920's. And I don't think it has been renovated or repaired since. You could probably call it quaint, but we preferred to say run-down. Since there only seemed to be the main road with a Dairy Queen next door, we jumped back in the car and headed to nearby Coos Bay.

Even though the town wasn't overly interesting, it was fortunate that we arrived during the - I kid you not - Blackberry Arts Festival! There were some nice street markets selling plenty of products, some of them involving blackberries. The blackberry pie was totally worth it.

Apart from an antique shop, there wasn't much more of interest nearby, so we drove further south to nearby Shore Acres State Park. Shore Acres was originally an estate owned by a Coos County timber baron who sold the land to the State of Oregon for use as a park in 1942. Now it is an assortment of gardens with beautiful shore-side scenery. And again, the weather was perfect.

After finishing here we decided we'd have to eventually return to Florence! Our room was huge but the cleanliness was debatable. We walked to the area behind the hotel where we could see some amazing sand dunes, located across from a now derelict waterfront restaurant. It reminded us of a ghost town. After some more wandering around, we eventually found the road that the hotel clerk said would lead us to the main part of town.

Clearly us and the town of Florence got off on the wrong foot. To our surprise, the street lead us to another part of town that was loaded with boutique restaurants, shops and cafes. The busy road and our hotel gave us both the wrong first impression, as we were duly impressed with all the venues along the Siuslaw River.

Considering the fact we thought Dairy Queen was the only place to buy food, we were pleasantly surprised with Florence. We went to the Bridgewater Fish House and Zebra Bar for a great afternoon of dinner and drinks before wandering around town for a bit longer. So Florence has really been the biggest surprise so far of Oregon.

We were going to walk around at night but it started to mist so we stayed in our hotel. I read an interesting brochure about what to do in a tsunami, which was somewhat unsettling! I'm not sure how we're going to sleep here though as we can hear every footstep in the room above. Tomorrow we continue to Crater Lake!Read more