A Shining Light In The Night!!

There are many lighthouses along the rough Oregon coastline and Heceta Head is one of the prettiest.   Just North of Florence, this beauty stands on a cliff in the morning fog ... in fact, it started raining as I climbed the half mile from the beach parking lot to the lighthouse.  Bring a $5.00 bill (I only had a $10) to pay for parking and definitely take this easy hike.

In the old days, travel along the coast and around this point was done by horse and wagon, totally dependent on the tide.

The lighthouse keeper's residence still stands today as it did many years ago.  Horses were used to get to the house and wooden steps, eventually replaced with a concrete path, was the trail to the lighthouse above.  Remnants of the concrete path still exist.

Unfortunately, this is NOT a public building for all of us to enjoy.  It has become a Bed and Breakfast where you can only stay if you have reservations and lots of money!!  For $315.00 a night, you can look inside ... otherwise, you are out of luck.  How in the world did this become a PRIVATE residence enjoyed by just a select few???  This makes me pretty mad!!!

Not only could I NOT get inside, I wasn't even allowed on the grass inside the fence to take pictures.  Needless to say, I wasn't very happy to see this beautiful house that SHOULD be part of the National Park system, be totally closed to the public.  At LEAST let people walk in one door, through the parlor and out the other door.

With my long lens, I was able to get around to the side and get a view of the lighthouse through the porch railing.  It's a shame this can only be enjoyed by the rich and famous or the owners!!

A short walk further up the hill and you come to this beautiful structure.  I hiked up before anyone else arrived, to get pictures not long after the sun came up.  

The view from the lighthouse is pretty spectacular!!

All the way up the trail were beautiful lacy flowers, topped only by the crows that followed me every step, squawking and warning everyone I was on my way.

On the return trip down the hill, the house was visible between the trees.

Back at the rig, I called Nick and Terry to see if I could come watch Miss Terry do a little weaving.  She had set it up for wash cloths and was hard at work when I arrived.  They are staying at The Jetty Thousand Trails Park.  What a madhouse THAT has been with people fighting for camp sites!!  The roads are very narrow and dirt from what I could see.  People were squished in to sites like sardines!!  Luckily for me, they had a nice site with extra parking.

Miss Terry explained all things "weaving" to me.  WOW .. there's a lot to learn!!  Lucky me, she is more than willing to share her experiences, both good and bad, so I can make an informed decision on what to purchase.  When I left, my head was about to explode with information!!

This is the Schacht loom I would like to get.  It's the grandchild of Terry's, so quite a bit smaller.  Hers can make wider things with much more complicated patterns, but I think this one will suite me fine.  I'm headed over to Harrisburg for rig repairs at O-dark-thirty tomorrow morning and hope to check it out in Eugene while there.  

I drove home in the rain yesterday afternoon and it sprinkled most of the night here, with more expected.  That's good for me, since it should cool off in Eugene ... at least for one day!!  I'll be back to Florence for a few more days over the fourth of July (it's expected to be crazy around here) before meeting up again with Nick and Terry and the Chance family, including newest member Missy (assuming Miss Snoopy accepts the interloper), in a Thousand Trails Park further North.

Today you ask??  Why the ice cream store, of course!!