Head south along the coast to Florence.

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Taking our time, we worked our way south along the coast. A hike at a rare coastal prairie was absolutely delightful, and a hint of the variety of wildflowers we will see on this trip. We stopped at Cape Perpetua National Forest Scenic Area, which proved to be one of our favorite stops on the entire trip. The lava rock coast with all the "blow holes" was amazing. Small pools in the rock were filled with frog tadpoles. The hike was delightful. We were again reminded of all the results of the CCC during the depression...makes you pause.

Further down the coast we stopped at the Sea Lion Caves. This has all the trappings of a tourist trap, but we ended up really enjoying the stop. The cave was discovered in 1880 by a sea captain, and has been privately owned since the purchase from the state in 1887. It is home to the Stellar Sea Lion and is really pretty interesting. We watched a baby seal being "baby sat" by a seal lion, obviously not the mother, but protecting it from falling off the rock, none the less. We hoped the mother was out fishing and would return shortly, the baby was obviously hungry and ready to nurse.

As we approached Florence, where we had rented a beach house off VRBO.com, we saw a sign for a Botanical Wayside. omg It was a small boardwalk to a stand of Darlingtonia californica. They are the largest pitcher plants I have ever seen and just beautiful. We struck up a conversation with an older couple next to our rental and found they had never stopped at the wayside in the 20 yrs. they had lived there. It always tickles us that we, as tourist, often point interesting spots to the local residence.

The house was a 10 minute walk to the beach, thru a delightful pathway/boardwalk built and maintained by the neighborhood. We woke up to find coast guard helicopter and rescue boat searching for an unfortunate plane crash into the ocean right in front of our cottage.

If families that play together, stay together, Oregonians should be fine. Pretty crazy how many families we saw with big pickups pulling big travel trailers, with ATVs, bikes and boats. The area just south of Florence is known for all the sand dunes. We took one of the tourist vehicles for a tour of the area. Most beaches in Oregon are open to motor vehicles, so you need to pay attention.

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