Bandon: Museum, Sculptures and Cheese

This will be my last post concerning our Labor Day weekend in Bandon this year:

One of the stops on the trolley route was Face Rock Creamery.  They make their own cheese but serve Umpqua ice cream.  Somehow it tasted creamier to me than when I eat Umpqua Dairy in Myrtle Creek.  Perhaps it was just the atmosphere.

          We did get some real food in addition to the ice cream and rare cheese that we had purchased.  That tasted different in Bandon than it did after we got it home. 

          Jenna had been torn between a sandwich or the smoked mac and cheese.  Unless you absolutely LOVE the flavor of smoke (not like, not tolerate, but LOVE) I would not recommend the smoked mac and cheese.  Even so, just get the small.

          There’d been a sign outside of the museum indicating that tours were free on Sundays.  

After we finished eating, Jenna and I walked to the museum and Roland said he would meet us there.  On our way to the museum, we passed some sculptures – which Jenna had taken a few from the trolley.  She took almost 20 more as we passed on foot

         

          She took 50 pics at the museum.  Here are a few: 

          After the museum we returned to the car and headed back to Myrtle Creek.  Roland and I were exhausted.  Jenna does not yet understand being exhausted.

Bandon from the Trolley

                We had seen the trolley on Saturday and Jenna had wanted to ride it at that time.  We did not take the opportunity then, but took advantage after we returned from Face Rock.  We had returned to downtown Bandon for some souvenirs.  Jenna specifically wanted a shirt from Washed Ashore, but there was fifteen minutes before it opened.  Roland led us to the toy store.  Somehow we had lost him and Jenna and I were outside when she noticed the trolley.  She asked the driver how much it cost.  When he said “free” Jenna had more reason.  The trolley comes by every hour.  We got on without Roland, but I didn’t think it right for us to be gone from him for an hour as he would have no idea where we were  (I had left my cell phone in the car or else I would have called him) and got off at the next stop and walked back.

 We went back to the Gallery where Jenna purchased a sweatshirt (which is now a permanent part of her body) and I purchased a book called Sea Change (here).  We did some more exploring and waited on a bench for the trolley to return.  I am so happy that Jenna had the opportunity of riding as she said it was the highlight of our trip.  Jenna took almost a hundred pictures - many of them blurred. With some I couldn't figure out what she it was she was trying to capture. She did get some really nice ones. With the exception of the first picture, Jenna took all of these pictures:

waiting for the trolley to return

microsoft Zeke filter

outlook for elephant rock

 

a bit blurred, but shows the town on water's edge

boat can be rented through Coos

the last picture that she took from the trolley

Face Rock Wayside

          It seemed to me that there were sites I had wanted to capture in photos as we were leaving Bandon to go to Coos Bay.  As they were behind me, I figured I would wait and take photos as we drove into Bandon on Sunday morning after we had checked out of our room.  However, the fog was so dense I couldn’t see whatever I thought I wanted to take pictures of.

          We arrived at Face Rock.  Roland dropped Jenna and I off at the lookout and went to find someplace to park. 

Jenna and I waited at the top.  I blindly took several pictures as I could only see my own reflection. 

notice the guardrail from very top pics

This photo was lightened

Jenna and I had not noticed the stairs that led to the beach and wondered how the people we saw had gotten there.

this is the trail we climbed down in the fog

And then we saw Roland – who had written a message in the sand – though we couldn’t see it until after we found the stairs and he showed it to us.

photo IDs Jenna's real name

So these are some of the pictures that he took:

lightened photo

Jenna, of course, wanted to explore, which was fine.  While the maze was fun to walk, it seemed more enjoyable to me just to watch the movement of others . . . from a distance.

We’ll need to return at another time when Jenna may have time to explore the caves and such.

Lodging for One Night

Bandon is a few hundred less in population than is Myrtle Creek.  Unlike Myrtle Creek, Bandon draws crowds of people and tourism.  Thus Bandon offers a variety of lodging including hotels and beach houses to rent.  Denny Dyke and his team create these amazing labyrinth pathways called Circle in the Sand.  My friend had gone and told me that I should go because “it is so cool” (see here and  here).

          The last two days on schedule for this year were September 1 and 2, but nothing offered August 31 which is when Labor Day weekend started.  Because we hadn’t gone anywhere during the time that Roland had off, he felt gypped out of having stayed elsewhere over night.  Because there was no room in Bandon, we had found lodging in Coos Bay.

          After checking in to the hotel, we all went swimming.

          Roland decided he wanted German food for dinner and we went to the Blue Heron

          On the way back to the hotel, we went to Safeway.  Jenna had asked me to take this picture of her.

my girl LOVES Halloween