Settled For The Winter (Sutherlin, OR)

In late October and early November we spent our last three weeks on the Oregon coast in a wonderful little town and port called Florence.  We did a little new exploring, but for the most part we visited some of our old favorite sights.  We walked the downtown area several times.

We visited the Shore Acres State Park.  This place use to belong to one family.  Such a wonderful combination of a rugged shoreline with gorgeous formal gardens filled with dahlias, roses, and a reflective pond.  Here are some photos we took during our visit.  The link shows more photos and tells the history about the owner.

Some of the dahlias and roses were still blooming despite the colder weather.

We also visited the Heceta Head Lighthouse on a foggy day.  The fog gave this old lighthouse a very mysterious almost romantic feel to it.  The views were spectacular.

from the shore looking up towards the lighthouse keeper's home

Lighthouse keeper's house - now a B&B

During our walks around the RV park, we started entertaining ourselves by looking for mushrooms.  They were everywhere in all sizes and colors.

The moisture in the air was perfect for the mushrooms, but we were starting to get a little tired of it.  Time to move to Sutherlin on I-5.

Granted it is overcast 80% of the time, but it is a lot dryer here in the inland valley between the low Coastal Range to the west, and the high Cascades to the east.  We got to pick out our own site this time.  We picked one on a hillside overlooking the park and the hills.

Now, when we go for walks in the RV park, we look for deer...

and turkeys...

and jack rabbits.  The wildlife seems to be very use to humans.  They rarely run off when we stop to watch them.  We even watched one man come out of his rig yelling at the turkeys to go away.  They certainly did not panic and take off in a hurry.  More like little punks, bobbing their heads, sauntering off as if to say "okay Pops, we're leaving, but you don't scare us."

We have been spending sometime with the park's residents to get a feel for this park.  They have been very friendly and filled with information about the area.   We can't believe the holidays are already here again.  We had our Thanksgiving dinner with the Escapees in a pot luck this year.  So, that's what we have been up to for the past month.

The fall leaves were almost gone when these photos were taken and the holiday season is here once again.  

Our son, Shaun stopped in for two nights.  He is moving from Albuquerque to the Everett area.  If we decide to lease a lot with Timber Valley SKP in Sutherlin, we will be within a day's drive to his new home.  A big plus we were not planning on when we first added Sutherlin to the top of our list.

We have now been dealing with snow and freezing temps for the past week.  We will add photos of that in our next blog post. 
 

Since it might be awhile to our next post, let us say a belated Happy Thanksgiving!  Merry Christmas! and a Happy New Year!