1. Fifth Pick of the Litter2. Growing Up
3. Competition
4. In the Mountains
5. On the Beach
6. Buffy
7. Old Age
In 1999, we moved to Bandon on the Southern Oregon Coast. For the next nine years, unless I was out of town, Chip and I walked on the beach two or three times a day. Each walk was 1.5 to 2 miles, so we typically walked 4 to 5 miles a day.
We lived on a bluff about 80 feet above the ocean, so going to the beach meant descending--and reascending--130 stairs at a nearby park.
Bandon Beach features a fantastic array of rocks, sometimes called sea stacks, including Cathedral Rock (far left), Face Rock (over Chip's shoulder), Cat & Kittens (in front of Chip), and Elephant Rock (one corner of which is on the far right). Cathedral Rock had many caves that we explored at low tide.
Typically, we went for a walk before breakfast, a second walk before dinner, and a third walk before going to bed. The nighttime walks were not always on the beach because of the dark, but we went when the tide was out or the moon was full.
Sometimes we crossed a small divide to a beach to the north.
Table Rock, shown in this photo, is north of the divide. Perhaps four or five days a year, the tides were low enough for us to walk out to this rock.
We also enjoyed incredible sunsets, such as this one in front of Face Rock.
Sometimes you just have to howl.
Occasionally we would go north to Shore Acres State Park, where the sea has carved strange shapes into the sandstone.
Playing hide-and-seek in the Shore Acres rocks.
Other times we would go south to Blacklock Point, which can only be reached by a three-mile hike.
The beach just north of Blacklock is lined by an incredible sandstone cliff (a larger view of which will be in the next section).
Next: Buffy