Nate & I escaped to the Coast several weeks back and spent three
beautiful and glorious days in Bandon (or Bandon By The Sea).
Bandon is a wonderful little sea side town that is about 3 1/2 hours
up the Pacific Coast Highway! We left on Thursday morning,
made our 'traditional' stop at Taylor's in Cave Junction and enjoyed
the beautiful drive! We took our time on the drive and stopped at
a few turnouts and at Whaleshead Beach for a bit!
Aww, the ocean ... this is the sound that we long to hear outside of our windows every.single.day.
We spent a lot of time researching hotels before we chose where we stayed -
we wanted something that was right on the beach - we ended up renting a Cottage
at Windermere on the Beach and it was absolutely perfect!
The Cottage was a little dated, but it was clean and it gave us the
view that we wanted and the beach access that we wanted -
so it worked out extremely well - AND, while we were there it looked like they
were working on some upkeep on the property, so perhaps next time we go
the rooms will be a little nicer!!
(Oh, and yes, the bed is unmade - we took room pics on our last day
as we were packing up - sorry it's out of order and not pretty!!)
So, after we got settled our priority was walking down to the beach!
To get to our beach we had to walk about 150 yards through brush -
not a bad walk at all if you ask us!!
As the sun was setting we walked back up to our room, grabbed
some drinks and sat out on the deck and watched the beautiful sunset!
We sat out on the deck long after the sun went down - it was a perfect evening!!
On Friday we went for an early morning walk on the beach-
it was a little chilly and there weren't many people out
which made it completely enjoyable!
After our walk on the beach we headed into 'Old Town' Bandon to
walk through the shops and have some lunch!
On our way into town, there was a beautiful little overlook that we stopped at:
Walking around Bandon ...
I had told Nate as we were walking along the beach that morning
that for some reason, I really wanted to try Crab or Lobster while we were in town ...
(which is HUGE for me - I think I had the whole "When in Rome" mentality).
We wandered around the town and asked a couple locals where the best
Crab was, and they pointed us in the direction of "Tony's Crab Shack!"
Part of me really wanted to order a whole Crab and have the whole experience
(but part of of me was really glad when they said they didn't have any fresh
catch on the day that we were there - it's a little intimidating)!
Anyway, we ended up ordering a Crab Sandwich
(to share - I was hesitant to commit to the whole sandwich ... )
Oh, and in case you're keeping tabs, I LOVED it!! :)
Nate did help me eat the sandwich, and then we wandered over to the Bandon Fish Market
so that he could get some fresh Fish & Chips and Cod Strips
(which he LOVED and which I also tried - and just in case you're keeping tabs,
the taste wasn't bad but I didn't enjoy the texture at all - it was too flaky).
After we had our delicious lunch (es), we drove out to Coquille Lighthouse.
The Lighthouse itself was closed, but we spent a good hour or so
wandering around and taking pictures - it was too beautiful not too!
Nate also decided he wanted to have a little adventure -
we must be getting old because the only thing that I could think about when he said that
he was going to jump off was that he was going to break his leg and I didn't know
where the closest hospital was ... luckily he was okay and no legs were broken!
Our aim for Friday evening was to spend it on the beach so that we could watch
the sun set! We made it back to our hotel and down to the beach around 3ish
and had a perfectly wonderful evening snacking and talking and playing on the beach!
Saturday morning we woke up to a wall of fog, and as disappointed as we were,
it was still beautiful and we still walked along the beach prolonging our time before we had to go.
Nate pulled out his sweet dance moves!!
(I've you've never seen Nate do 'the Chandler dance' from FRIENDS,
you're definitely missing out!!)
Our drive home was part fog and part sun, depending on how close to the Coast
we were at any given point! It was a beautiful drive and there were
a few places that we could pull off and see the Ocean that weren't fogged out!!
Nate, as always, was kind and helpful and helped this sweet couple jump their car!
I'm going to take a moment to tell you all that Nate is one of the best people
that has ever graced the face of this earth. He is so kind and giving and
willing to help anyone that needs it and I am so grateful for him!
We had a truly fantastic trip and we were so grateful to take a few days
and get away - we did miss coming home to our Rascal and it was very weird
to be able to just talk about her and not worry about her while we were away ...
we still miss our girl every day ...
