Florence OR - Harbor Vista County Campground and Park

Now, off to Florence OR, another beautiful Oregon coast town, to visit friends from Tom's childhood, Evelyn and Jim Cloyd.

Evelyn and Jim have a lovely home that overlooks the Siuslaw River. They were very kind and invited us over for dinner where we saw lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! OK, maybe not exactly, but a bear definitely.

On our first day there, we met Evelyn and Jim at their lovely home overlooking the Siuslaw River. From their living room, you could see harbor seals (not sea LIONS) that spend time on the beach across the river when not downtown begging for french fries from the tourists. Evelyn and Jim then took us out for a delicious lunch on the riverfront, a stroll through old town Florence, and a visit to the south jetty of the Siuslaw River.

That night was a reunion with Evelyn's daughter and Tom's childhood friend Karen and her husband Jerry, a good time. During dinner a resident DEER stopped by their backyard for her dinner.

The second night, Evelyn invited us over for laundry (Wendy was of course thrilled) and dinner with Evelyn's grandson Andy, his wife Amanda, and Amanda's dad John. So we spent another enjoyable night with good company. That evening's dinner was punctuated by a quick backyard visit by a black BEAR!

Although Evelyn says there had been reports of killer whales swimming up river past their house to snack on the harbor seals, we did not see any during our visit. That would have been as good as tigers in the backyard...OK, maybe not, but close...

Note: A few days after we left Florence video was shot or Orcas in the jetty just as Wendy wished. If you would like to see it, take a look at Tom's facebook feed where it's been shared.

For our home in Florence, we stayed at the Harbor Vista County Campground and Park. This is a very nice county run campground that is near the mouth of the Siuslaw River. Our campsite had ample parking and a partial sporadic view of the river...depending on whether or not there we people in the neighboring sites. It was also a few steps from a trail down to one of the beaches on the river.

View from the jetty looking up river towards the town of Florence