oregon 4: south slough, seven devils wayside, bandon, and cape blanco

once we all go together again, we packed up our stuff and hit the road. we stopped at a few thrift/antique-type stores.

 this one was interesting. even though it said it was open, it was locked. then, across the parking lot the owner (i think) saw us wanting to get in. so she started to grab her key but couldn't find it. then she proceeded to look all over for it. after a few minutes of this, we decided that this bead shop wasn't necessary (di dalam tidak usa).

we then made our way out to seven devils road (a great road name) and came across the south slough estuary. i went there as a 4th grader on a science field trip. i thought it could be a cool place to see birds, so we stopped. 

 we went on a hike right by the parking area. 

 it was a lovely, lush walk through the woods.

 there were tons of ferns.

 and lots of mossy mossy trees.

 i really liked these ferns.

 some freddy fungi had a lichen for alice algae.

 the kind of caterpillars my brothers and i used to catch in our neighborhood and keep as pets for a few days.

 the boardwalk saved us from getting mucky.

 these huge leaves were cool to see. it felt a little like being in journey to the center of the earth.

 a grown-over log.

 after our hike (and, unfortunately, no birds), we drove over to seven devils wayside beach park. this is the "agate beach" i remembered as a kid.

 we walked along for quite awhile and found lots of cool rocks. including lots of agates.

 here, a crow is eating a dead seal.

 there were lots and lots of beautifully-colored rocks there. 

 we discovered later that day that many of the reddish colored rocks we found were jasper.

 it was a bit windy at this beach.

 we then went to bandon and stopped at the new cheese factory.

 we tried the cheese samples.

 and then we got our $2 humongous kid-size ice cream cones. they were so big, and we all loved our flavors (b and i got the chocolate brownie something, which was delicious. s got cotton candy, which tasted just like cotton candy (s liked that; i didn't). w got a nice lemon ice cream.) 

 we stopped at a thrift store in bandon and picked up some oleh-oleh, and then we went out to the umpqua river lighthouse and beach. 

 you can't go up into the top of the lighthouse, but we went into the main room cum visitors center.

 some bumper stickers that amused b.

 we very much enjoyed the beach in bandon. we found lots of cool rocks there too. after a few hours there, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some food for us, and then we drove down 101 to cape blanco. we had reserved a cabin at the campground there. here is our cabin. 

 it was a nice cabin--we all had our own bed--and the campground was beautiful. very green and wooded. you didn't feel cramped in the campground with people around you on every side. i really liked this campground.

 a cool moth at our cabin.

 and now some perspective on it's size.

 we saw lots and lots of berries all over in oregon. there are tons of blackberries (although they weren't ripe yet). and, here, some thimble berries. there were lots of thimble berry bushes around too--although less berries than bushes.