Volunteering at Cape Blanco

This is our phone booth where we can get cell service just outside of the campground. Pretty nice aye. Jeni loves this place. We have seen gray whales here playing not 100yds off shore.
This is by far the most beautiful state park we have ever seen.
Jen and I drive the "ole" gator to this spot for lunch,breaktime,dinner,and phone calls. Its our favorite spot.

Here I am chopping kindling for the campers. this is the wood shed. There is 6 cords of wood in here. The park has these little carts that we load with fire wood and sell to the campers for $5.There is usually 9 or 10 pieces of wood in the cart. What a deal!
Jen and I load the carts {we have 5} and pull them over to our site about 5pm. We set in our lawn chairs and greet the campers and sell them wood until about8pm. Its a tough job, but sombody has to do it!


Jeni and I found a great place for breakfast a few miles from the park in Port Orford. A place called "The Paradise Cafe" Nothing fancy but hugh portions.Jeni wanted pancakes,she looked on the menu and they only sold 1 pancake. Regular or blueberry. Jeni ordered 1 blueberry pancake and an egg over easy. Our eyes poped out of our heads when we saw the pancake!! Thats a 16" plate that pancake is on and the egg is totally "dwarfed" by the cake. Wow! We both shared it and could not eat it all. The prices are great too.

It gets a bit windy at the "Cape" as the locals call it here. If it isn't rainingt, its windy or foggy. But now and then the sun sneaks out. It stays in the 50s for the high temp. here so we wear a coat most of the day. Jeni almost lost her scarf posing for this picture.

There are many wonderful overlooks at the park and each one is different.

I may have trouble getting Jeni to leave this place.

While we were in Port Orford,we toured the coastguard museum.This boat was used to rescue people off the oregon seas in the 1940s and 50s.This boat amasingly can right itself if it capsizes. The dosent says there is a ton of brass in the hull. It makes it top heavy when capsized so it just rolls over to right itself.

Port Orford is a neat little community.Jeni grocery shops and does laundry here. When we eat out we come here.

One day when we were off, we toured the Cape Blanco lighthouse. It is still a "working"lighthouse and still guides ships around the rocky shores of the cape. It was a beautiful day and the views from the top were breathtaking!

There are lighthouse hosts that man the tours,and they live in the campground like we do. There are 7 hosts in all in the campground. We are the camphosts,then there is the cabin hosts who take care of the rental cabins,4 lighthouse hosts,and the "Hughes house" camphost.

And this is the Hughes House!

This is a turn of the century project built by Mr. hughes for his family.They built an empire in the Dairy industry.

They amassed about 2200 acres which they later on donated to the State Park that is now Cape Blanco.

The inside is ausume. with all the amenities for that time period.

Jeni and I really enjoyed it.

Another place we like is Bandon,about 20 miles north of the Cape.

It has shops and lots of little seafood shacks along the wharf. We had the best cvlam chowder and fish and chips we ever ate! Its a cool little town.

The wharf is been redone and modernized and they have installed many benches, rails,and even a glass enclosed shelter with tables, chairs, and benches made out of "Myrtlewood" which grows locally here.

This is the enclosure.Jeni and I were playing checkers while watching sealions on the boat dock. Jeni kicked my $%?>" in checkers.

It is windy here and they have a couple of cool kite shops that we browsed through.

Actually, I lost because I fell asleep while we played! But Jeni never caught on.

Next week we have plans to head down to Gold Beach to ride the Jet boats.





This is Coquille lighthouse at the head outside Bandon. It is smaller than Cape Blanco and is not in service anymore. It is out on a point and there is another State Park just north of the point called Bullards Beach. We toured it and it also is a great park. The park is at beach level unlike Cape Blanco which is 100 or so ft. above the beach. They also have what they call "yurts". these are like cabins but are made from canvas.

The campground is bigger than Cape Blanco,with more sand and less vegetation.

We are enjoying Oregon so far and the sightseeing has just begun. We will surly be back to the Cape every chance we get.