Saying goodbye to Arcata and it’s 4th of July bubble parade (?) we were en route north, ultimately to Bandon.
The coastal scenery continued to delight and by morning tea time we had crossed the state line and were officially in Oregon. 
We found a great seaside State Park which met our requirements (water view, toilet, picnic table) and watched excited families celebrating their National holiday at the beach as well as meeting local wildlife who may have benefited from a few stray crumbs….
Harris Beach State Park
Rejoining Highway 101 we were officially on the Samuel H Boardman scenic trail, dotted with scenic pull outs which unfortunately lacked any information about the distance or difficulty to get to the scenic spot. We struck out on the second one we stopped at, hiking downhill and then through thick sand for some distance before we hit the scenic vista – then of course there was the uphill. We were keen to arrive in Bandon in time for the afternoon July 4 activities so pushed on after that, stopping only where we could actually SEE the view from the road, in the interests of time.
Arriving in Bandon mid afternoon we checked into the excellent and very scenic Windermere on the Beach, unloaded the car and headed on down to the old town of Bandon where all the action was taking place. Devastated to find that the cardboard boat races had finished we had to console ourselves with the Wine Walk. This is a great initiative where local businesses pair with wineries and have sampling inside their shops accompanied by small bites, mostly complimentary.
The Wine Walk served to uncovered two little gems for us. The first was Washed Ashore, a fantastic project where articles washed ashore are fashioned into art (mainly in sculpture form) to promote recycling. It was very thought provoking, one of the sculptures contained many water bottles from the 2008 Beijing Olympics 😏
Washed Ashore sculpture – Nora the Salmon
Washed Ashore starfish
We happily made a donation to their cause and continued on to the next number on our map, a lovely little wine bar and restaurant called Alloro. It was so lovely that we progressed no further and stayed for a delicious meal, unfortunately finishing with two hours to go before the start of the celebratory fireworks…. it was chilly and we were very weary so reluctantly we decided to skip the fireworks and head back to our room with the welcoming fireplace !
Russell however, did manage to find his favourite dessert on the way to the car.
Fortuitously for us, some of the locals were launching their own rockets from the beach directly in front of our room so we didn’t miss out altogether.
HAPPY JULY 4 EVERYONE 🎇
Tomorrow, over the mountains to Crater Lake