Happy Times Two: Brookings, Oregon

Wednesday night was in Brookings, Oregon, not too far over the border from California, but a wonderful little place. We had initially thought we might make it to Bandon, OR for the night, but, the road along the coast was somewhat slow, which was fine, and we decided there was no reason to push it. So when we got to Brookings, we started looking for a place and found an RV park right on the beach. It was bright and sunshiny when we got there, so we took a long walk on the beach, but it was pretty chilly. Love walking on the beach, no matter where it is or whatever the weather conditions, so we had fun. Some beautiful houses along the beach, one with a great big golden Jesus statue, with outstretched arms, right in front of a huge American flag! Saw a pretty sunset as well. Not too much to tell, as this was a day mostly for driving, but it's just so incredible to see so many different landscapes and scenery. We love the Pacific coast, since it's so different from the Atlantic coast we've been used to all our lives--lots of huge rocks out in the surf not too far from shore and the waves seem so much more powerful. Sometimes when we've been on this coast it's been warm, but most of the times it has been much cooler, and often quite cold, but this brings a whole different dimension to beach going, and it's really nice.

Truck loaded with redwood logs along the highway in California as we headed north

Scenes along the coast highway in northern California

Two golden bears guard the bridge over the Klamath River, near the Oregon border--interesting story surrounding these bears. Apparently they were originally a rather dull brown, and fell into some disrepair, so some local civic leaders took it upon themselves to spiff them up with gold paint, hoping to improve the image of the area and attract some more tourists. The DOT initially thought this was the work of vandals, so they promptly repainted them brown. Upon hearing the outcry from the local citizenry who had donated to the gold paint effort, the DOT admitted its hasty and mistaken judgment, so they came in and painted them gold again, at their expense! Gotta love bureaucracy!

The Klamath, as we crossed the bridge

Shots as we walked along the beach in Brookings

So many beach houses out here have these turrets--widows walks I think they call them, after sea captains' houses, where wives would walk, anxiously scanning the horizon to see if the ocean would be returning their husbands or not--but they are really a wide variety of this as an architectural addition to many newer houses and I'm fascinated by them.