Another trip to San Diego?

Yesterday, we departed Dallas (Dallas, OR; not that other burg in TX) for our annual trip to San Diego for the celebration of our two grandsons' birthdays. They were born 4 years and 4 days apart, hence their birthdays fall within a week of each other. This is very helpful to grandparents. Thank you Tim and Laura for spacing them thusly.

Because it is August, we decided to take the coast route and avoid both the heat and the raging forest fires along the inland routes.  We ambled down US 99 to Veneta and then took US 126 to Florence. From there we toured the breathtaking southern coast of Oregon along US 101 as far as Gold Beach, where we checked in at the Turtle Rock RV Park.

 This, of course, is Turtle Rock

This little park sits on the bank of Hunter Creek, just where it flows into the Pacific Ocean. The park itself is a bit run down, but the staff are wonderful, and the location is exquisite.  We set up housekeeping in space 27. Thank goodness they moved us from #92, which I had chosen because it was the nearest space available to the path to the beach. Unfortunately, it is also surrounded by some very sappy trees.

We had a long stroll on the beach, minus the dogs who are home taking care of number one daughter, Tara. There are tons of agates (or at least some translucent white stones), but not much sea life was in evidence. As we reached our outward limit and decided to turn around, I spotted something a few yards beyond us.  I walked over and picked up a perfect, intact, beautiful sand dollar! It is, so far, our only souvenir of the trip.

It's hard to see the cormorants sitting atop this rock, just off shore. 

We went back to Topper and enjoyed a cold drink on the "veranda," followed by a lovely dinner of grilled steak, baked potato and sauteed veggies. During the night we were treated to cool temperatures, just right for a restful snooze, and to the sound of rain on the roof, something we haven't heard for a LONG time. Curse the drought anyway!