Gallivanting Into 2011: Day 1, Eureka to Florence

Eddie returned from two years of military service in the middle of the semester, when I was too busy to escape, so we agreed to set time aside during my winter break to take off on a shared adventure.  An army buddy of Eddie's invited us to spend Christmas in Honduras, and we were tempted; however, the desire to spend the holiday at home for the first time in many years was too attractive.  We finally agreed upon a January trip through Oregon and Washington, with stops to see family along the way.


Day 1:  We left home and headed up the California/Oregon Coasts with no specific destination.  This intrepid guide and fearless driver seek adventure!

As we hoped, the Oregon Coast was beautiful--and relatively free of tourists.  We find that we often have our best trips off season.  That's one of the reasons why, while all of our friends are headed to Costa Rica, Mexico, and other warm regions, we're traveling north.  It's fun to see things without the press of other people.  On one trip years ago, we had an entire castle in Mallorca to ourselves for an afternoon.  While we're not planning on visiting castles this time around, Eddie enjoys driving when he's not following RVers!



We made our first stop in Bandon, at one of our favorite seaside restaurants, Lord Bennett's.  We ate here for the first time in 1998, shortly after moving to Humboldt.  It was a bit of a whim; we woke up in the morning with no destination in mind--simply packed a bag and jumped in the car.  The volunteer at the Oregon Visitor Center recommended Bandon, Lord Bennett's, and Table Rock Motel.  We love them all and try to visit every few years.
 
With a lot of coast ahead of us, this time around we settled for a quick lunch and a swing through town. 







             
                 

The views on the coast of Oregon are always breathtaking.  It's surprising how different the terrain is from northern California too.  The redwoods give way to a mixture of pine and deciduous trees, and there are more lakes, river harbors, and sloughs both to the east and west of 101.  The Oregon Dunes recreation area is beautiful at any time of year.


One of our favorite sites along the drive up Highway 101 is the wide array of WPA-era bridges that adorn the small towns and river crossings.  Here's a beautiful bridge on the south end of Florence:

The timing was right to call it quits anyway, but we were a bit tickled to spend the first night of our trip in Florence, Oregon.  The town looked like a typical drive-through pit stop at first glance, but when we turned off the highway into Old Town, a charming village revealed itself.  After being welcomed by our ultra-chatty host at the River Side Inn, we walked through town, warmed up in a local comic book shop, relaxed in our riverside room, and feasted on seafood at the restaurant up the street.


It wasn't quite as exciting (or warm!) as our week in Florence with friends during the summer of 2009, but we only had to travel a few hundred miles rather than 5,000+.