Bandon, OR

I love a map that tells you where you are:
The red letters say: You are here!

We LOVED Bandon!  It is a quaint Oregon Coast town. 

http://www.bandon.com 

We were blessed to have such gorgeous weather for exploring this gem.  We started our visit here exploring their beaches and tide pools.  They have names and stories for many of the rock formations on their shores.

Jon and I in front of Elephant Rock

The "elephant" is on the left...do you see it?

Face Rock...it has quite a legend behind it.
You can read about it here if you wish: One version of the legend  

They never tire of chasing waves and looking through tide pools.  Their new enjoyment is
guessing which waves will be sneaker waves.  Oregon is known for these dangerous waves.  Think micro-sized tsunami.

The way down to the beach didn't seem so steep, but now that we have to go up....
it's a different story :)
Look at that blue sky!!  What a treat!

We all were ready for lunch next, so we went to the Bandon Fish Market that is on the docks of the harbor.  A sweet man at the Chamber of Commerce recommended it.  He was right...it was AWESOME!

(By the way... we have found that stopping at the tourist information centers, welcome centers, and Chamber of Commerces is the best way to find out about the places where the locals eat, little known sightseeing must-sees, and a great place to meet some very sweet, usually elderly folks.)

Oh, my...YES!
Fish and chips...better than jolly 'ol England!

After lunch, we wondered across the street to Cranberry Sweets shop.  Another great find...and Rachel Ray has been here, too!  Her picture hangs on the wall :)

Bandon is known for its cranberries.

Jon ate one of these:  Bog Frogs  :)

We spent some time wandering through the shops of old town Bandon and the docks, then we headed over to the town museum.

This turned out to be a GREAT museum!  One of my favorites, so far.  Bandon has an amazing history of farming, fishing, shipbuilding, and logging.  It also burned down twice.  They have artifacts of all the various industry of the town, as well as artifacts of the original peoples.  I was really drawn to the history and people of this town... I want to live here now and be apart of its story.

Faith is "using" one of the original cranberry harvesting tools...a picker.

We tried to take a tour of a cranberry farm, but they aren't giving tours now.  However, we were able to drive by one and take a look-see:)

Cranberry bogs!!!!!
We have never seen bogs before.  They are very interesting!

We had a great day... and did you see those blue skies???  It made our hearts happy :)

On the way back to Coos Bay, we stopped at Wal-mart (our first stop in a Walmart in months!)  Anyway, the girls were cracking me up sitting in the cart like this:

Can you see Jolie under Faith?  They were just a giggling through the aisles :)

We made it back to our RV camp in time to enjoy a beautiful evening.

This turned out to be a RV park that caters to seniors, but the camp host helped us out by giving us the biggest
slot they had!  Look at all this room!  You know what that means:

It's scooter time!