Southern Oregon Rocks!

We are just finishing up our 6 night stay in southern Oregon. We had a lovely shaded pull through spot at Twin Rivers Vacation Park. Our spot was sorta close to our neighbors, but still felt fairly private and quiet with the trees.

We had enough grass to play lawn games and we were right next to the shower house, laundry facility, and garbage. This park is also within walking distance of River Forks park and about 3 miles off the freeway. Overall it is a great location in the Umpqua Valley to spend some time with family and friends AND see the great things that this region is known for!

Being back in southern Oregon, we obviously spent most of our time with my family and friends. We have our yearly traditions that we like to do, so of course we did those things, but we also did a few new fun activities as well. 

On our first full day on Friday, we went to 3 wineries that we hadn't been to before. The first one we visited was Reustle Prayer Rock Vineyards. The winery was beautiful. They have a wine tasting that they pair with food for $10. It was amazing! The wine was good and the grounds were immaculate. I highly recommend visiting them if you are in the area and you like wine!

The fam at Reustle

A view of the outdoor tasting area at Reustle. You can see a bit of the vineyards in the distance. 

We also visited Tesoaria winery which was basically the complete opposite of Reustle winery. It was a casual atmosphere with the fun guy serving us. We weren't huge fans of the wine, but it was a good experience. Last, we went to Glaser Estate Winery and Distillery. It was really good (I am anxiously awaiting the bottle of pinot gris I got!) and the liquor was excellent as well. I got a bottle of butterscotch liquor that I think will be amazing in coffee/tea in the autumn or even on cheesecake. If you haven't been to the Umpqua Valley Wineries I suggest that you check them out if you are in the area!

On Saturday, we went to the art festival in town with big plans to paint something amazing, but unfortunately the raku painting guy wasn't there this year. :( We did get to look at arts and crafts, hang out and listen to music and spend time with friends.

On Sunday we had a lazy day hanging around the 'burg and spending time at my parent's house. 

On Monday we decided to beat the heat and to head for the coast. We headed to Bandon for some excellent lunch at the amazing Tony's Crab Shack. I had a crab sandwich and Jason had a smoked salmon sandwich.  I LOVE this place. It is a great casual place to eat and everything on the menu is delicious. Definitely one of my favorite places to eat when we come back to visit!

Tony's Crabshack and Port o' Call 

There is this whole washed ashore art project going on in Bandon right now. We saw these 2 sculptures made from garbage washed ashore in downtown. It was very interesting!

Henry the fish

Lidia the seal

There is also art on the deck of the boardwalk. Currently the art is carved wood, like the seal (sea lion?) that Jason did a "selfie" picture with.

I really loved this carved octopus. So much detail!!

We did make it down to the actual beach and I ran around in the surf a bit. The fog was rolling in fairly thick, but we had a great time anyway.

A panoramic picture of the beach

We got some delicious fresh Dugneness crab from Tony's crab shack to bring back to our campsite. Our meal was completed with some steamer clams off the barbie and some bread and potato salad. So yummy!!!

Dungeness Crab is the best crab!!

Tuesday was our last day in Southern Oregon. Jason took Drogo to get his oil changed while my mom and I went shopping in Eugene. We had a great time and a great lunch! We ended our day by attending Music on the Half Shell back in Roseburg with my family and some friends. It was a great end to our trip (although it all went way to quickly!!)

What it is all about - spending time with my mom!!!