Every year during my childhood, as far back as memory takes me, I traveled from Orangevale, California to Oregon and Washington to visit relatives on our summer vacations. My father had two weeks off each summer, and we would drive on I-5 and Highway 101, making stops along the way to visit with Aunts & Uncles, finally arriving at our final destination in Hoquiam, Washington where my grandparents lived. For many years my great Aunt & Uncle lived in Florence, Oregon, and that was almost a guaranteed stopping place on our first day of travel. I have very fond memories of spending time in Florence and playing in the nearby sand dunes, visiting Sea Lion Caves, and enjoying the Oregon coast. My Aunt & Uncle moved from Florence to Hoquiam when I was still a teenager, and from then until now I had not been back to Florence. When Dan suggested we hunker down somewhere on the Oregon coast between our visit to Washington and our return to Sacramento (to avoid being on the road during the Labor Day traffic), and when he randomly suggested Florence, I couldn’t have been more pleased.
We arrived in Heceta Beach (3 miles north of Florence) on August 27th. Our RV Park is a 10 minute walk to the ocean beach, and when everything settles down in the evening, you can hear the waves from our 5th wheel. We drove into Florence that day and try as I might, I couldn’t relate it to anything I remembered from 30+ years ago. I really wanted to find my Aunt & Uncle’s old house, but didn’t know where to start. My mother and sister said they could drive to it if they were there, but no one remembered a street name, or specific directions. The dunes were familiar, though, and I appreciate the beauty of the Oregon coast more now than I ever could have as a kid. The weather has been (mostly) cooperative so we’ve been able to take walks and runs on the beach, ride our bikes into and around Florence, and take one longer hike on a trail in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. My Grandparents are buried in Coquille, about 65 miles from Florence, so one day we drove to the cemetery to visit their gravesites and pay our respects.
I have enjoyed revisiting some of the memories and places of my youth. Things are never quite the same as you remember, but that’s not always a bad thing. New experiences, blended with the old impressions, can combine to form something even better. I found this to be true of the visit to some of my old stomping grounds.
Next Stop: Sacramento!
We arrived in Heceta Beach (3 miles north of Florence) on August 27th. Our RV Park is a 10 minute walk to the ocean beach, and when everything settles down in the evening, you can hear the waves from our 5th wheel. We drove into Florence that day and try as I might, I couldn’t relate it to anything I remembered from 30+ years ago. I really wanted to find my Aunt & Uncle’s old house, but didn’t know where to start. My mother and sister said they could drive to it if they were there, but no one remembered a street name, or specific directions. The dunes were familiar, though, and I appreciate the beauty of the Oregon coast more now than I ever could have as a kid. The weather has been (mostly) cooperative so we’ve been able to take walks and runs on the beach, ride our bikes into and around Florence, and take one longer hike on a trail in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. My Grandparents are buried in Coquille, about 65 miles from Florence, so one day we drove to the cemetery to visit their gravesites and pay our respects.
I have enjoyed revisiting some of the memories and places of my youth. Things are never quite the same as you remember, but that’s not always a bad thing. New experiences, blended with the old impressions, can combine to form something even better. I found this to be true of the visit to some of my old stomping grounds.
Next Stop: Sacramento!
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