Camping anyone?

Well we did it again, we spent another weekend on the Oregon coast. This time Justin had planned a weekend away as part of my birthday present, isn't he just great! We started the weekend heading down I-5 and stopping in at the Eugene Saturday Market, which has been going on since 1970. It was a great time, lots of fun shopping and tasty food. Then we headed over to University of Oregon campus and toured the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Mostly if featured history about Oregon and the Native Americans that were there. But it also had a special exhibit on shoes, Eugene is home to Nike afterall. It didn't take long to notice everyone wearing yellow and green Oregon Duck colors, meaning there was a home game. Since Justin and I don't really pay much attention to sports we kinda didn't realize this and quickly found out that there was no way we were going to find a hotel room to stay the night in Eugene. Luckily we didn't really have a plan and drove over to Florence that night instead of the morning.

Florence is located on the coast and is a beautiful town along the Siuslaw River. We spent time walking along the very windy beach and made it there in time to catch the sunset. The next day my birthday gift really started as Justin and I went to visit the Sea Lion Cave. This is supposed to be the year round home to a group of Stellar's Sea Lions. However no sea lions were in the cave! We did see and hear them swimming along the shore. That made up for some things, but I really really wanted to see them up close, we will have to try again next time. We also drove up to Heceta Head Lighthouse. This lighthouse is maintained by the Oregon Parks, but the light is cared for by the Coast Guard. They had some great volunteers and we were able to climb up to the base of the light. They sure like their lighthouses here. Oh... trivia question for you: what state in the US has constructed the most lighthouses?

And the day only got better, when Justin and I went on our horseback ride along the beach at sunset! Turns out no one else signed up for the ride, so that made it just the two of us, our guide, Buddy and Chaser (the horses). It was a lot of fun, and now I kinda want to add that to things I want to learn how to do. The weather was a bit warmer on Sunday night than it was on Saturday, but the clouds moved in time for the sunset. To get to the beach we had to ride the horses over the tall beach dunes! And to top the weekend off, we spent the night in a YURT! And it was beautiful, really even though this was in a campground it was the furthest thing from camping. I mean we had a bed, heat, fridge, toilet and shower! And it was excellent, I definitely will be staying in one of those again. Camping anyone?