As the Coronavirus settles into our lives around the world, we feel fortunate for our health but sad we had to cancel our much anticipated trip to Spain. Instead we are driving south towards California (from Portland) and hope to find some gorgeous hikes along the way.

After some discussion, our final destination today will be Bandon, Oregon. It’s close to a 5-hour drive and the second half is new territory along the Umpqua River.

Once we found Highway 101, we could see sand dunes so made a quick stop.

Onward to Bandon. Our hotel is cute, clean… and half a block from the beach. Gorgeous here!!

Bandon is a sleepy little town about 75 miles from the Oregon-California border. It is a beautiful day but very windy. Apparently that is not uncommon. 50 degrees and we were wearing gloves and hats!

We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Edgewater and toured through the old town. While we were eating dinner, we could see the lighthouse just across the Coquille River. There is something fascinating about lighthouses so we drove over to snap a few photos. It was built in 1896 and retired from service in 1935 when an automatic light was installed on a nearby jetty.

All in all we had a great day. I’m thankful for the good highways we have in Oregon and the beautiful scenery.

Update on the Coronavirus… our flight to Spain is scheduled to leave tomorrow at 5:40 pm. We won’t be on the plane and I don’t think anyone will be since we were just told there will be no travel for 30 days between the US and Europe. This will be interesting…

#westcoasttravel