Face Rock Beach, Bandon, Oregon

The bulk of our adventure began on Friday, June 5. We ventured out to Face Rock Beach in Bandon.

Please tell me that you see the "Face Rock." right?!

Grandma and Branch wander on the path and enjoy the coastal sounds.

The family eventually makes it down to the beach and off of the cliff. Bud has already taken off running and is far ahead exploring... SOMETHING! Anything, really!

Grandpa had found a big walking stick and wrote Blossom's name into the sand. She loved seeing it form into the sand. She was awful proud of her name being there. I didn't tell her that hi-tide would wash it all away!

She tried so hard with that great big stick to make her letters... but she wound up with lots of squiggles and goofy lines. She was happy with making her mark on the beach.

Bud and Pops found another "keyhole" to explore and found that this particular (huge) rock was riddled with tunnels that led to other areas that the ocean was rolling in! They insisted that we journey through to see it all.

If Bud wasn't running ahead to find something interesting he was probably climbing onto a rock somewhere...

We found an unfortunate dead sea lion on the beach. A dead baby sea lion was several yards away. Someday I will try to write the story that we devised about what happened. When you see something like this, don't you wonder what happened? Pops laughs at me and says, "Uh, living things die. If it was living in the ocean, it will be carried to shore by the tides." Yea yea yea... but what, how, why?!?!  I like a story. Who wants to be told, "died of natural causes" when you come upon a LARGE sea lion like this with a baby yards away? I WANT THE STORY. (Maybe I should've been a reporter!! I could SO join in with the sensationalized journalism! Sign me up for the new "Web Enquirer" - uh, I now have copywrite on that title. Don't steal it. It's a good one, eh?!) Anyway, this photo was staged for Pops' brothers... I don't think that anyone sent it to them, though. Maybe they should check this blog thing now and then.  We'll see...

Bud had climbed atop of this rock and found a small tide pool and a beautiful hiding crab inside! Everyone had to climb up and have a look-see! (On a side note, when you "tide pool" you are supposed to leave the living things alone and not touch! That is a very difficult task for our children. When we visit a store with a bunch of fancy things to look at, I always tell the treekids to put their hands in their pockets, if they have any. If they have no pockets, then it is praying hands to keep their fingers to themselves! I think that maybe Bud is trying to put his hands in his pockets, here so that he remembers to leave the crab alone!!)

It was a fun morning that we finished up on the docks in downtown Bandon with an assortment of delicious good things to eat, fresh from the ocean at those great seaside shacks! Oh, we saw a super cute harbor seal, but I was giving myself a camera brake while I enjoyed a bit of downtown! Here is the one downtown picture... it is the old lighthouse.