A few days in Florence, Oregon

 With Michaela's semester having come to an end, we were very ready for a few days of rest and relaxation. After an uneventful drive (for reference, easily achievable on a single charge with a modern EV) we settled into our rented home that would serve as our base of operations.

Afterwards we went on a stroll through the neighborhood and onto the local beach, where we encountered some vultures picking a sea lion skeleton clean:

The next morning we headed to the Heceta Lighthouse beach bright and early:

From there it was 'just' a two mile hike to Hobbit beach - alas there was some notable elevation in between, even though we were principally just trying to get from sea level at one beach to sea level at the next one. While this level approach - apparently - can be done at very low tide if you are quick enough, it wasn't low tide when we were there, so we had to do the 'up and over'.

As with most Oregon beaches: very pretty, huge, pristine, and not a soul in sight.

(Full disclaimer: if you fully zoom in on the above picture, you will notice two dark dots in the far distance. There actually were two other people on the beach - modern smartphone cameras are amazing at capturing that level of detail!)

Walking from Heceta beach to Hobbit beach implied, of course, that we needed to go back...

The house slightly up from the beach is the former Lighthouse caretaker's home. Now it's a swanky Bed & Breadfast.

After recuperating and some lunch, we headed south past Reedsport to the John Dellenback Dunes Trail. The dunes, about 28 km^2, are pretty spectacular and apparently inspired Frank Herbert's famous 'Dune' novel.

The next morning it was off to one of the beaches just south of Florence:

From there we headed to watch some sea lions (and a smallish whale!) and Cobra-orcids (carnivorous) a little north of Florence.

Later that afternoon we visited the 'exploding whale' city park, named after the infamous incident ca. half a century ago.

And on Wednesday morning it was time for a final hike along Woahink Lake before heading home and back to work again.