Bandon, Oregon

Every few years, my extended family meets up for a reunion. This summer, we rented a large beach house in Bandon, Oregon. It's a good midpoint for my cousins' families in Washington, my sister's family in Idaho, and my parents and us in California. We were there for six nights. 

 

The house we rented was just steps from the beach. 

 

Trevor (age 11) and his cousins (ages 16, 14, 8, 6, 4 and 4) spent countless hours there, exploring, climbing rocks, playing in the sand, and building things out of driftwood. 

 

The adults had plenty of beach fun, too. I asked my sister and cousins to pose for a group photo so that I could create another Cousins layout and this is what happened. That's my cousin Matthew with his arms around my sister Kari and me. My cousin Tim is the one making bunny ears. I did end up with a nice pose of us all, but there's something charming about this one. 

Some of us collected rocks to make beach art. It's hard to get a sense of scale from the photo, but this heart is about 5 feet wide. 

We played a lot of games, both inside and out.  

 

And, of course, we explored the town of Bandon. It's an art-lovers' paradise. 

  

During the summer, children's artwork is displayed along the boardwalk for all to admire. 

  

I have never seen so much public art in one place. It's wonderful. Local artists' work is displayed in the library and other community buildings. Bandon has quite a few private art galleries as well, including one special one we visited. I'll tell you all about that tomorrow. 

While everyone had their own personal favorites, we all agreed which art was the most impactful:

Take a closer look. This huge fish is made entirely of items that have washed ashore in Bandon. 

Washed Ashore (Art to Save the Sea) creates gorgeous sculptures to educate people about plastic pollution in the ocean. It is very, very powerful. 

 

Powerful and beautiful. 

 

Some of it was even interactive. You can use a piece of rubber pipe to create music by tapping the bottles in this sea star. Or, you can raid the bins of plastic that washed ashore to make your own artwork. 

 

We enjoyed visits to the Bandon Historical Society Museum and the Coquille River Lighthouse. 

 

Trevor loved the fun scavenger hunts at the museum. He was REALLY hoping this falcon was named Sir Speedy Falcon, but alas he is Mach 1. Still a cool name.

We ate most of our meals at the house, but we made multiple trips to Face Rock Creamery for their amazing ice cream. This is a $2 child-size scoop!! I can't even imagine what the single and double scoops looked like.

Tomorrow I'll tell you about the art project the family did one afternoon in Bandon.