Bandon – Riveted

Waldport, Bandon-by-the-Sea, Gold Beach

Laura Domela — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 23:50:01 +0000

Today we left Waldport/Alsea Bay and headed south. We stopped to have THE BEST FISH & CHIPS ON THE WEST COAST in Bandon-by-the-Sea at the Bandon Fish Market. I'd already eaten half of my fish by the time I thought to take this photo. They give you SO MUCH FISH! (I barely touched the fries, but they were good too.)

I know, we've told you about this place plenty of times before, but trust us. Do not pass through Bandon without trying the fish & chips here. Today we had halibut , but we've also had cod and salmon, and it's all good. (The halibut though!!) The fish is delicious, but their batter is SO light and so crispy and stuck perfectly to the fish. Amazing.

Next door is Tony's Crab Shack and they have great fish tacos too. (We've also told you about them before too, I know.)

We arrived in Gold Beach and got situated in our new spot at Turtle Rock Resort, with…did I mention? OUR OWN PERSONAL DECK AND HOT TUB!

After we unhitched we went to explore the beach (a short walk from the campground). We hung out and watched the sunset, and now we're going to cook up some tacos for dinner.

The weather at the coast today was incredible. It clear and sunny and 70 degrees! 70!! On the Oregon Coast! In January!!! CRAZY.

Impromptu Airstream Caravan

Laura Domela — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:15:41 +0000

There was an older smaller Airstream that followed us for about 15 miles as we were heading toward Cape Arago the other day.

They were actually getting setting up at Sunset Bay State Park when we got there but since we had no cell service or internet there to speak of, we waved and headed out in search of connection. This afternoon we plan to head from Bullards Beach State Park where we are now staying into Bandon to stop by the Face Rock Creamery's grand opening (apparently the whole cheese factory thing in Bandon is a big deal) and then we'll head back out to the day use area at Sunset Bay State Park and do some coastal hiking.

Fish & Chips, Wild Animals, and a Lighthouse

Laura Domela — Tue, 07 May 2013 21:53:03 +0000

Today after we finished up some work we headed over to the Bandon Fish House for some fish & chips. This place has our favorite fish & chips…the fish & chips we think are the best ones we've ever tried. We had one order of salmon fish & chips and one order of halibut fish & chips…both amazing. Light crispy batter that sticks to the fish and super fresh delicious fish. Perfect.

Next we headed over to the "West Coast Game Park Safari" a few miles south of town, still in Bandon. My mom said when she and my brother stopped here they got to hold baby tigers, and that did it for me. We likely never would have stopped at this place, but I'm glad we did.

This place was a trip! It's family-owned (since 1968) and it's a walk-through wild animal park, basically. We got to hold a one-month old baby red fox immediately after we entered the park:

We pet a ton of other things, including sables, an apricot (kinda white) skunk, a huge opossum, llamas, goats, deer, a baby bear cub…. Oh and I got to have a bobcat in my lap:

It was pretty cool. Here's the bear cub having a warm bottle from his trainer:

There are tons of goats, deer, llamas, and peacocks roaming the park freely.

The peacocks were everywhere!

This guy was letting me get really close to him to take this photo:

Then all of a sudden he shook it all out and gave me a spectacular close-up show:

I guess he wanted us both to see how beautiful he was:

Pretty amazing, even from the back! (How bored does Kevin look in that shot though?)

We walked around the rest of the park and saw some gorgeous animals. (You can see a list of what they have here):

Here I am, eye to eye with this white bengal tiger.

Llama eyeball (it would not back up):

And another show from a different peacock:

Crazy design for a bird, huh?

After the animal park we headed out to the Coquille River Lighthouse and took a nice walk on the beach before heading back to camp.

We've got some fresh oysters smoking on the Traeger (again, I know, yawn) and in a couple hours when they're ready I'll throw together a salad and call it dinner.

New Spot at Bullards Beach State Park

Laura Domela — Tue, 07 May 2013 14:28:37 +0000

Here we are:

Right now, we're just working inside (while the mosquitos flock outside) but later on when we're finished, we'll go exploring. Fish & chips for lunch, petting some baby bears at the Wild Animal Safari, lighthouse, beach, more smoked oysters for dinner…those are things on our list today.

Florence to Bandon-by-the-Sea

Laura Domela — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:50:48 +0000

We stayed at my (100 year old) great aunt Zelma's last night in Florence, Oregon and visted with her, her daughter Dolores, and my mom. It was a short but nice visit. The neighborhood where Zelma lives (gated, near the water in Florence) has a few nice RV spots for visitors and when we're visiting we always have a great spot that's just around the corner from Zelma's house:

There's a huge rec center area right next to these RV spots where there are two pools, tennis courts, some kind of long skinny game you play in the dirt or sand with some balls (?) and a rec room with pool tables and ping pong. I let Kevin beat me at 5 or 6 games of ping pong.

We headed out around noon today aiming to go about an hour and a half south toward Cape Arago. We've stayed in this in this area before and felt like we'd like to explore it more. Since we were already this far, what's another hour or so south? (Remember, this is how our 1 month trip turned into 4…good thing I said I'd be home for Mother's Day!)

We'd mapped out Oceanside RV Resort because it looked like it had good Wi-Fi and was the closest to the beach, but then when we got there, the vibe was just so-so (totally fine, path to the beach, nice people, but it just didn't grab us), so we opted to head a bit further and check out the state park at Sunset Bay. It's in a great location with tons of hiking trails along the rugged coastline, and it sounded more like what we were after. We found a great campsite in D loop and pulled in and went back to the Airstream to see if we could get decent internet with our regular in-Airstream system (before we committed and paid the fees), and after quite a bit of trying with no luck, we thought maybe the A loop might fare better since it was closer to the main road. Nope. Dangit. No AT&T. No Verizon. No Sprint. Even with external antennaes and booster amplifiers. This campground is in a little cove/canyon though, so it's not that surprising.

We tried the only other campground out here (besides the marina/parking lot at Charleston, OR) called Bastendorff Beach Park (a county park next door) and we had better service there, but no beach access and still kind of a so-so vibe. Oh heck. Let's just go a half hour further and stay at Bullards Beach State Park in Bandon. We can drive up in the afternoon one day after we get some work done and do some of the hiking back at Cape Arago that we hoped to do.

So that's where we are now. We're parked next to another Airstream (a 19' Bambi from Quebec). The couple is on an 8 month trip around the U.S. (started in March of this year) and it sounds like they're having a blast so far.

We set up camp, did some work, and then headed into Bandon to get some dinner and some groceries. We stopped at Tony's Crab Shack for their delicious fish tacos, and picked up two dozen fresh oysters, two pounds of Manila clams, and two fresh Dungeness crabs. That oughta keep us busy for the next few days!