Around Florence, OR, on Jun 30 and Jul 1

We arrived in Florence on Monday night. The weather was cool, after being pretty warm along I-5. It started to cool after turning west at Eugene.

On Tuesday we rested a bit and did some grocery shopping at the Fred Meyer (it's huge). Of course we had to check out the dunes blowing into the back of the Fred Meyer parking lot.

We drove south a bit to check out the dune riding opportunities, but didn't take any rides that day.

We tried to go the beach near the dunes, but it was so windy that the sand was stinging our faces, so we didn't make it down to the beach. We ate in Old Town Florence that night.

On Wednesday morning Mark, Callum and Lara went dune riding on ATV's at Sand Dunes Frontier along Route 101, about 4 miles south of Florence. Callum and I took out a 250cc 4-wheel ATV and Lara rode a 90cc 4-wheel ATV. We were out for 1 hour. It was a lot of fun. I didn't take a camera along, so only have photos of the ATV's parked in the lot. We each got stuck in the sand a few times, so Mark got some exercise lifting the ATV's out of the holes dug in the sand. It was a beautiful, sunny day. Not as windy as the previous day.

Ann walked through Florence that morning checking out the shops.

On Wednesday afternoon we all took a drive north of Florence along the coast as far as Waldport. Really nice scenery and viewpoints. We ate in Old Town Florence again that night.

Here are links to some photos.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Mark.Jeffrey.McIntosh/BlogOregonSanFrancisco20090630?authkey=Gv1sRgCJPY2OTsvvSh3gE#

http://picasaweb.google.com/Mark.Jeffrey.McIntosh/BlogOregonSanFrancisco20090701?authkey=Gv1sRgCP7tzLjBlL60eg#