Flamingo on a Stick

Umpqua River Lighthouse I can’t believe that that month of March is almost over.  Today we start our last 3 days of hosting at Heceta Head Lighthouse. This has been a great experience and we hope to return one day when the tower is open and the light is on. There is a slide show on the renovation in our displays and I have watched it now several times. It is amazing that they were able to get it looking like this is just over a year. The amount of detailed hand work that it took to preserve this building is just amazing. We have had a chance to see several of the other lighthouses and I may be biased but I think this lighthouse is the crown jewel of the Oregon Coast. If you drive this coast line anytime after June it will be well worth your time to stop and visit. We also have enjoyed the people here and the park. If we returned we would hope for a site that we could get our dish to work, but for a month at a time, I know I can handle being without it. Because we just h...

Yaquina Bay Lighthouse Last week, on one of our days off, we headed north on Highway 101 to Newport. I’m not sure what the population of Newport is but it seems significantly larger than Florence. It is also home to the Rogue Brewery which makes some very good beer. My oldest son is a real fan of this beer. His favorite is Double Dead Guy Ale. Added to that is a Walmart and we were in need of a dehumidifier as well as a few other things we hadn’t been able to find in the smaller towns. As much as we like staying in areas that are more rural areas sometimes you just need a bigger town or city to find what you need. Another draw to this area is Yaquina Bay Lighthouse and Yaquina Head Lighthouse. We started in town at Yaquina Bay Lighthouse. This is a unique little lighthouse that has its light right on top of the lightkeeper’s house. The light was only functional for a year and then it was decided since the light at Yaquina head was much stronger there just wasn’t a need for ...

Lightkeepers house from the lighthouse One of the interesting things we have learned about our lighthouse is the story of the Gray Lady who is the resident ghost of the lightkeeper’s house that is now a bed and breakfast. The ranger in our orientation didn’t mention it and I think they would rather not bring it up but we began getting questions about it right away and of course we were clueless so we did some asking around and some research. There is some conflicting information but it is thought that the ghost was the wife of one of the assistant lightkeepers here by the name of Rue. Rue was an older mother when one of her daughters died. Now this is where the conflicting information comes in. Some say it was an infant daughter who died and others a somewhat older daughter (yet still young). Some sources say she fell off the cliff, some say she fell into a cistern, some sources say she was ill. There is rumor that there is a grave on the property of an infant girl that was...

I thought today I’d give you a little info on the lighthouse we are working at. We had fairly good weather this last week and so had a good flow of visitors. It is a 1/2 mile hike uphill from the parking lot, so we start our day with a little exercise. About 3/4 the way up the hill is the original Assistant Lightkeeper's House now a bed and breakfast  assistant light keepers House. It was originally a duplex that housed the families of the two assistant light keepers. There was another small house next to it for the head light keeper and his wife but in 1936 when the electricity came to the lighthouse only two light keepers were needed so the head keeper moved into the duplex and the small house was sold for $10 to a local who hauled off the lumber to reuse. This plot of land now belongs to the US Forest Service and the house is run by a concessionaire as a bed and breakfast. We have talked to several folks that have stayed there and they say it is a wonderful place an...

The beach from the trail. While we were at Bullards Beach, the truck got a little boo-boo on its front bumper. Just a little scratch but John loves his truck so much that even a little scratch is traumatic. So how does John fix a boo-boo? Well, he puts a bandaid on it, a really big bandaid that says “what would Scooby do?” Some might call it a bumper sticker.  The best part is that saying is now becoming a mantra for him. Heceta Head Lighthouse We have moved into our new work camping gig at Heceta Head Lighthouse just north of Florence, Oregon. We are staying at Carl G. Wasbburne State park. The lighthouse is part of the park. So here we are again with no cell service (even though yesterday I had some fleeting moments of 1X service) and we can’t get the dish to lock on even though we’ve been told others have done it in this site, they even showed us where but so far no luck. Thats ok, its only a month and we can walk or drive down to the day use area and have a good...