Bandon

We escape to the coast every chance we get. We usually stay in Lincoln City or Newport, but the past two times....we've stayed in Bandon. We also, usually, rent a house. We stayed at our friends & neighbors hotel on this trip. We stayed in the penthouse at the http://seastarbandon.com/. They are the new owners of this hotel & have been spending time updating the hotel, so it's already different than the photos on the website. They are also in the process of setting up a prettier site. :) We toured the rest of the rooms & every room looked just as inviting as the Penthouse. They even had a few games in our room (er, apartment) & we played yahtzee before we went to bed. We woke up in the morning, walked to a cafe & got some coffee & perused the town. It was nice.

We bit the bullet & went to the petting zoo. E & I are a bit neurotic, I will admit, when it comes to places like this. We sanitized & scrubbed everyones hands when we left. We also made the kids change their shoes before getting in the car. Well, the zoo was an adventure. You walk in & are swarmed by stinky animals, covered in feces. A herd of goats & deer got in between J & I, so my friend, Steph, rescued him. OH! Check out the crosseyed Opossum! Isn't that a riot?! He looks like a cartoon charachter. The boy (cuz he was about 18), telling us about hims said that the zoo had rescued him after an accident...hmm.... I flashed back to highschool days when we would TRY to hit those gross things with our cars. We got to see (& the kids pet) an 11 wk old Bengel tiger cub. He was almost full grown & was freaking us out. You see the photos of him getting his bottle & the kids petting him. Then, J wanted down & was walking away from him, (keep in mind there was a crowd around), all of a sudden the tiger stopped & was watching J's every move. It was more than just watching him, it was getting creepy. After we made sure the trainer had a good hold on him, I snapped a quick photo of the look on Sultan's, (the tiger) face. I added a couple of photos of the kids w/ him after the trainer had caged him. He was pouncing & playing with them. It was amazing to see him lunge at the cage. Speaking of cages. I'm not a huge animal activist or anything, but this park was rather pathetic in how they kept their animals. I think that it's rather disgusting that the large animals are kept in such small living spaces & we are paying money to view them for our selfish gratification. They looked so miserable. We are used to the Wildlife Safari in Winston. They have ample space for the animals to roam. Not at the Bandon petting zoo. They are tiny cages for big cats & monkeys. We won't be returning. We both felt horrible at paying $40 for our family to support the place. Maybe it will go toward better living conditions for the animals. :)

The photos of M & the little goat...that goat started following M from the moment we stepped foot in the zoo, until the moment we left. It was odd that M & this little goat connected so well. M wants to go back to see her goat. Ya. sorry, we won't be doing that any time soon. On to the real reason for visiting the coast, (well, besides the yummy food).... The ocean! The boys (I mean the big ones) played E's usual game of seeing how far you can place your stick w/o getting wet. The little boys attempted to do the same. I love to see that any age, boys will be boys. E took a running jump off of a piece of driftwood. He is still complaining that he should have thought about that before he did it. He has a bad knee from playing (old man) basketball. I call it old man ball because they're all over 30 & they come home begging for the heating pad, or E has to sit in the hot tub before he goes to bed. Anyhow, it was an adventure just to get down to the beach. Our friend, Perry, has a way of making everything an adventure. This wasn't your typical; park the car & walk down to the beach. It was our family & two other families. I had K in the front pack & we started the trek down to the ocean. We walked through some stickery bushes (no big deal), down a steep trail w/ Perry helping us girls down. Then I see a stream. Not a stream that you can just step over, or wade through either...at least not a near section of it. I ask how we're crossing the stream. Perry said that last time they were there...he built a bridge.... I ask what that means, (because I have K in the sling & my camera over my shoulder). We get to the stream & Perry starts helping the kids over. The whole time he's repeating, "don't step on that log. It's really wobbly". Well, we made it over. I am usually up for a bit of adventure, but I did NOT want my 6mo baby to fall in. Or my camera. I really should have taken a photo of the bridge. We made the same trek on the way back...K slept through everything. Our friend Steph almost fell in on the way back. Thankfully, she didn't. Oh! Notice the photos of E & K! Cracks me up! I kept asking E what the problem was & he said the sun was in his eyes. They are both scowling at me! Too funny.