Florence, Oregon

On Monday, September 11, we left Tillamook and drove south to Florence.  It was a fairly short drive, about 3 hours.  We are staying for the moment at the Three Rivers Casino.  We can stay for free for 4 nights and then we can stay 4 more nights but we have to accumulate 100 points on our players cards.  We parked at the best spot in the huge lot - the SW corner.  We had no rig on either side of us.  Moore's came in and parked in front.  Most of the sites are just parking places with RV's on either side.  

On Tuesday morning Dean and I checked out the other campgrounds in the area.  There are a lot of national forest CGs but they are full of trees and narrow sites.  Some were dedicated to sand rails or ATV's since the dunes are just south of Florence.  We liked Sutton CG north of Florence but again narrow and lots of low trees.  Price was right at $11 per night. We checked out the Elks in town ($18) which is a parking lot, and the Elks North of town ($25) which was all reserved and had no internet.   So we decided to stay at the casino.  

In the afternoon we drove about 20 miles north to the Hobbit Beach Trail.  This is a beautiful short trail to the beach thru a canopy of trees.

After the hike we went into the Casino and gambled enough to accumulate our 100 points.  I spend about $10 and Dean spent about $50 so we are good for another 4 nights.

The next day the Moore's and us went to the old downtown of Florence.  This is a very nice touristy area with shops and restaurants.  We ate clam chowder at the Firehouse which was ok, not great.  The Suislaw River Bridge is one of the landmarks in Florence.

All over the city there was beautifully painted sea lions decorating the parks and buildings.

The picture below is the waterfront in Florence.

Thursday Dean and I and Chica went to Haceta Beach.  This turned out to be my favorite beach in Oregon.  It was not too far from the casino, with a nice parking lot, and we could walk with our dog.  Chica loves the beach!

We saw these large clumps of sand on the beach.  Speculation is that they were caused by horses??

We liked the beach so much that we returned the next day and the Moore's joined us.  After our walk we did a little ocean wave counting, sitting on the beach.

 

Chica is always a little tired after her beach walks.

On Saturday we hiked a trail near Sutton CG which again was lined with trees and lush vegetation.

Holman vista looks out towards the ocean but you mainly see dunes and wind swept trees.

Saturday afternoon I walked over to the North East corner of the casino and watched the Xgames.  Young men and women were jumping off platforms and sand boarding down the short hill.  Not a huge spectator sport.

Sunday, September 17, Dean and I went to the South Jetty and walked along the beach.  We did not take Chica and it was a good thing since it rained on us.  Not too many people on this beach and one reason is a large sandy hill you had to cross to get to and from the beach.

Our last night in Florence - we went to dinner at the Waterfront Depot.  We had been joined by the Joe and Dona Moody earlier in the week so the Moore's and us were invited to celebrate Joe's birthday.  This was a delightful restaurant.  I had the crab encrusted halibut and it was too die for!  Dean had the scallops and they were also very good.  Prices were very reasonable.  

This is a picture of the parking lot at the casino for the RV's.  Each night there were lots of RV's parked there.