Day 57 – 10/26 Bandon, Oregon

We had a nice Monday today, kids got school done early so we went to Bandon, and what a beautiful place… amazing beach, lots of sand, rocks and marine life.  Wow.

The girls had a great school morning.  They got going right away as is now usual, even for a Monday they were on point.  Bia was ready to go for her first class, but decided to start in her bed.  She watched the first hour or so of her class in her bunk, then when she had to write stuff down she came to the table. 

Bella was up for her ELA class, and got to it right away.  Somehow, Bia was completely done with school by 10am, not sure how that happened, but she was.  Bella had a regular schedule and continued working while Bia was playing online with friends, but she was able to finish by lunch.

I did some work, had a call, and went for a run.  I ran on the street towards the State Parks near us and it was nice, no people or dogs to worry about. 

It’s nice to run there, you go through the forest and it’s super pretty with the sun light coming through the trees.

Carol worked on editing the next video, those take some time and I always look forward to seeing the final product.

Carol made lunch, and we ate and got ready to go.  I wanted to go check out Bandon, so we got ready to go as soon as we could.  We were out around 2pm or so.  

The drive there was interesting, we go up in altitude and into some thick forest area, and zig zag around for about 30 minutes until we get to Bandon.  I chose to go to the furthest point, and then come back through town so we could then have dinner there. 

We drove first to the southern most beach, taking Beach Loop Road, near Johnson Creek.  It was very windy there and the girls did not want to get out.  Carol came out with me, but didn’t go too far once she felt the wind and realized that to get to the beach you had to cross a creek, and to cross the creek by where we were you needed to balance on some tree branches that were there. hahahaha.. she went back.  I went to the beach and it was very cool. 

Just immense beach, fine sand flying around due to the wind, but big beach front and beach area as far as you could see. 

I went near the water and it was all clean, not even dead marine life was by the water, just some rocks.  Very pretty.  Must be awesome to be there in the summer.

I went back and we continued driving and stopping near the beach.  The next stop was called Devil’s Kitchen.  It’s a nice area with some more trees but no big creek to cross, though it did have a creek by it. 

You go down a tree area into the beach, passing a park with a few picnic tables, where some people were having a birthday :).  Right as you get to the beach there were some trees and branches, and ropes all connected together making a little play shelter, I’m sure kids play there. 

Carol came with me, but the kids didn’t want to.  We walked towards the water, enjoyed the views, and saw some mussels, some very large ones. 

Carol picked up the largest she could find and brought to the car to show to the girls, and hope to entice them to come along on the next stop. 

The girls were impressed with that huge mussel, and did decide to come down on the next stop… well, we didn’t really give them a choice.

The next stop was Face Rock, and that is an amazing area! 

It has big rocks carved by the waves, some rocks right by the water have some caves formed, where you can walk through, you can see a bunch of mussels and such on the rocks, there’s a lot of sand.  It was windy, so sand was moving fast looking like scenes in a movie in the desert.  We took lots of pictures and enjoyed walking around, climbing on the rocks near the water and seeing all the marine life we could. 

Bia checked it out well, touched all the clams, and sea urchins she could reach. 

Bella enjoyed the climbing and running a bit. 

We got a bit adventurous and climbed through one of the caves into the other side of the rock, and decided to time our run around the rock when the waves had retracted.  I had running shoes on, so I had to find a spot that was shallow all the time, so I timed it and ran through without getting any wave hitting me.  Bia went the other way, she had her hiking shoes so she could step on some water and made it out dry. 

Bella and Carol came late, so Bia went back with them. 

When Carol and the girls came through, they went the same way Bia did the first time, but go caught in some wave… I got Carol running from the water and screaming on video hahahahaha…  

In that process, Bella stepped in a hole and got her feet completely under water, higher than the hiking shoes, so she got all wet. 

That area is amazing, breathtaking… just hard to describe how pretty it is to have the big rocks there, the sun shining behind it all reflecting in the water, then the wind coming and moving all the sand around, and hitting your feet… so cool!

We left that spot and started walking back, but not before going through another cave that was carved closer to the shore, where sand was piling up, so it was all dry.  Bella and I ran up to the top of the sand pile, that was hard, and fun.  Bia tried to come after, but didn’t go all the way up.  I took a lot of pictures at this stop, it was just awesome.

I stopped again at a few other lookouts, and they just were all amazing.  I took some cool pictures near Coquille Point, one in particular with a bench at the top of the lookout area, with the rocks in sight and the sun setting behind it.  Loved that one, one of my favorites. 

Another great view from that spot.

Just amazing views all around.

And very windy day 🙂

We kept driving and went all the way to the end of that side, at Bandon State Natural Area, by Black Rock.

There’s a rock wall with a lighthouse type of building.  Nice views there and Carol got a few rocks that were very pretty.

From there went downtown to look for some food.  Two problems for us… one was that it was Monday, so many places were closed.  The second was that we wanted indoor seating, and the really good seafood places near the port area were all take out. 

We ended up missing out on some likely really good stuff, and ate a just any bar and grill place.  Bummer… that was one of those regret eating there moments just because we spent the money and it was not worth it, food was just ok bar food, but the beer was good at least.

It was getting dark when we left the restaurant, so we just drove back, and once we arrived just got everyone ready for bed and called it a day.

It was a chill day, and I really loved Bandon, one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve been to for sure.

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