Oregon Coast.

So it turns out Saturday was one of our best days in Oregon thus far. As mentioned previously, Jackson and I spent the day on the coast as an "anniversary extension." It takes about an hour and a half but the drive is just about as fun as actually being out there. The highway basically follows the river so as you're driving along you get this beautiful view of the river and the valley - green rolling hills, all of that. I tried to get some good pics driving along from the passenger's seat but they only turned out so so. We stopped in Elkton for coffee and pastries.



We passed through Reedsport, a mid-sized town where the Smith River meets the Umpqua, then we hit 101 South into Winchester Bay. The Umpqua River spills into the Pacific at Winchester Bay and it definitely had that charming, small harbor town feel. There were lots of boats docked at the marina, tiny seafood restaurants everywhere, crab pots (Deadliest Catch) stacked up in storage on the pier, weathered and windblown buildings with the paint chipping off, statues and monuments to various sea captains all over the place and, naturally, tons of seagull poo. It felt like there was a lot of history there, like all the people had some profound connection to the sea. We also found a lighthouse and paid 25 cents to look through a telescope-thingy in an attempt to see a gray whale off shore. We saw no gray whales but that was ok.



After leaving Winchester Bay we continued south and passed through North Bend and Coos Bay. In North Bend we found a coffee shop/bookstore. Jackson naturally bought a sci-fi book about outer space, quasars, and intergalactic warfare or something like that. After Coos Bay we started heading back because it was getting late and by that time we were a good 2+ hours from Roseburg. On the way back we passed through this elk preserve and stopped to see if we could spot any. There were a bunch laying down in the grass off in the distance but I didn't really get a good picture. But it was still fun. I made the mistake of saying to Jackson, "Isn't an elk basically a cow with antlers?" Haha the look on his face. Come to find out, elk are in the deer family. Who knew.



All in all it was an awesome day. We'll definitely being going back to Winchester Bay, maybe even to camp sometime this summer. There was this great little campground, Windy Cove, that was close to the water and the dunes (dune buggy rentals!). So yeah. A great day :)