December in Bandon

With Christmas being so hectic and Jordana working the day before and the day after and me dying to go on a road trip and Doreen asking us to come visit I decided to take some days off from work and take Jordana and the dogs to the beach. Doreen is the most gracious hostess!! She had just gotten back from a long trip to the east coast the day before we arrived. But she welcomed us with open arms and an open house. Doreen’s house sits directly across from the Face Rock State Park.

Bandon is about a 4 hour drive from our house. We had a very uneventful drive. Just before hitting Highway 101 I spotted a couple of Bald Eagles sitting in a tree over a river,

of course I had to turn around to get pictures and then we passed the elk reserve and we were not disappointed by the showing of elk.

And geese and even some ducks and more elk.

We were just pulling out of the reserve when we noticed that the elk had gotten much closer so we turned around and went back for some more pictures.

We arrived in Bandon to not the greatest weather on Monday but it gave us lots of time to play games and get to visit.

Tuesday morning the rain was going sideways and exploring the beach at low tide which was at 9am was looking very doubtful so we had some breakfast and played a couple of games and as it got closer to low tide the weather started to clear up. I took complete advantage of the break in the weather and made Jordana go with me to explore the beach.

We pretty much had the beach to ourselves so we let the dogs loose to run and run they did!

They chased waves and sea gulls and explored everything. Jordana and I found some treasures but mostly we enjoyed watching the dogs run and play and have such a good time!

There were lots of photo ops and I put my camera to good use.

We completely lost track of time and had no idea how long we had been on the beach until we finally dragged ourselves back to the house and realized we had been gone for 3 hours!!!

Doreen had wanted to fix a Full Turkey Meal while we were there and that is what we came back to after our time on the beach. Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberries, and salad. What a perfect day! Oh but of course it was not over we still HAD to go to Shore Acres State Park and see the Christmas lights! I LOVE Shore Acres and will go any time I can, it is never a disappointment!

The Christmas Lights this year were phenomenal; there were over 250,000 lights with many moving displays. Now it was the most perfect day!!

Unfortunately our visit was way too short since Jordana had to be at work at 1pm on Wednesday so we were up on the road by 8am to get back. But we had a GREAT time with a great hostess and friend, lots of games, and of course the beach. I am already looking forward to the next visit! Thank you Doreen!!