Saturday, October 03, 2009

Umpqua River Lighthouse & Oregon Dunes

Today we set out to see the Umpqua River lighthouse.  We found the lighthouse but it was on Coast Guard Property.  It’s open to the public but you had to go to a different building to set up a tour.  That’s okay, all I wanted was a picture.  I should have been keeping track of all the lighthouses we’ve seen on our tour of the Washington and Oregon coasts.  I didn’t even realize we were going to be visiting so many of them.

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After leaving the lighthouse we drove over to Winchester Bay where we found a wharf with a couple of seafood restaurants.  I had cioppino (seafood soup) and Rod had a halibut sandwich.

From there we headed to Spinreel ATV & Dune Buggy Rentals for a tour of the dunes.  I didn’t want to rent one for us to drive, I wanted somebody else to do the driving.  We opted for the one hour tour as it also went along the beach.  It was a fun trip and we didn’t have to worry about either getting lost or having a roll over.  Dann, (yes, it’s 2 “n’s”) our driver, took us over several dunes and as promised drove along the beach.  It was a beautiful day even if it was a little chilly.

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This was our ride

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Strapped in nice and tight

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Poor little injured sea lion on the beach.  Her flipper looks like it’s been bitten and is infected and swollen

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Some of the dunes were really, really high

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This tree is actually halfway buried in the sand

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The area past the tree line is a wildlife refuge area and nobody is allowed over there.

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Another view of the dunes (those are our tracks)

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Our Driver, Dann

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It was a fun day but I can’t believe Rod actually agreed to go since the Washington Huskies were on TV.  We did get home just in time to see the end of their game (they lost) :o  and to see the end of the LSU/Georgia game (LSU won!)   :) 

Tomorrow is going to be a stay at home day so we can watch pro football and get packed up and ready to move on down the coast on Monday.  We may actually be out of Oregon on Monday as we’re pretty close to the border now.  It depends on what more we may want to see in Oregon.  I guess we’ll know when we pull out of here.

4 comments:

Mark and Dortha said...

Looks like a great day and lots of fun on the beach and dunes.

Darn...now don't you wish we had purchased those lighthouse stickers.

Ellie and Jim said...

Looks like a fun time! Maybe we'll have to try the dune buggy thing when we get down that way. Safe travels!

Randy and Terry said...

I would LOVE to go for a dune buggy ride!! That must have been a blast. Can't wait 'til we do our NW trip. Take care, friends.

Rick said...

Sure liked all the pics of those Oregon beaches! We've been to the Oregon coast but not since we've had our 5'er. It's on our 'to do' list for sure now. Great football games yesterday, especially Washington @ Notre Dame.