Saturday, June 30, 2012

Coos Bay OR, Cape Arago Lighthouse and sea lions

One cannot get close to the Cape Arago Lighthouse but you can get a pretty good view from Sunset Bay just a few miles south of Coos Bay.  The lighthouse is owned by area tribes and no public access is allowed.

Just a few miles further south at Shore Acres State Park there are beautiful coastal views, a great trail, and sea lions just off the shore.  There is also a garden which I will show you tomorrow.

Capa Arago Lighthouse

this was as close as we could get to the lighthouse







do you see the sea lions on the little beach??

they were lying all over the rocks





WWII bunker on the trail






Friday, June 29, 2012

Coos Bay OR, more of trip to Florence

The Oregon coast is...well something everyone should see at some point in their life.  Along with beautiful scenery and bridges are lighthouses and, of course, wildlife.  It should be on everyones bucket lists.

On our day trip to Florence, we planned on visiting 2 lighthouses, the Umpqua River Lighthouse and Heceta Head Lighthouse.  You can see the Umpqua River Lighthouse below.  Unfortunately, the Heceta Head Lighthouse is under renovation and they have it completely covered up unbeknownst to us.  A bit of a disappointment because, although I have been there before, I was excited that Mike was going to see it.  Oh well.

I took some pics in the tidal pools below the Heceta Head Lighthouse.  It is so much fun checking out the little critters in the tidal pools.  Pics are hard to get because many are being shot through the water.  I got a few I thought were ok and will put more on the blog from another location later.

morning shot across a cove, as you can see, the water was like glass




oyster beds

fishing boat coming in

Mike checking out a whales jaw bone

full view of the Umpqua River Lighthouse

we stopped at this bakery of a loaf of sourdough bread

Heceta Head Lighthouse, under renovation!!

The tide pools below the lighthouse were great fun though!










look closely for pretty, tiny, shells in this pic


starfish and mussels



Coos Bay OR, bridges and cobra orchids?

We took a drive up the coast to Florence and a bit beyond a couple of days ago.  Oregon has some of the most beautiful bridges and we drove over 2 on the way.  On the way back we stopped to check out a natural garden that grows cobra-orchids!  Very interesting plants.  You can see how they get their name as they do look a bit like cobras....but the real interesting part is that they are carnivorous.  They, like the venus fly-trap, attract insects inside them where the insects get stuck and are eventually consumed by the plant!

The Oregon coast is spectacular,  I will have lots of pics of it in future posts to prove it!

fishing boats at Coos Bay

crab cages









we had really good fish n chips here!











Spam Museum, Austin, Minnesota

We were staying just a few miles away in Blooming Prairie and, of course, were going into Austin to a couple of breweries....how could we no...