Florence ~ part 2

As promised, here is more about our trip to Florence! Saturday morning at five o'clock a string of alarms went off. This was to be a long, exciting day! To the left Krista, Noah, I, and Janna are ready to hit the road for the three hour drive.

When we arrived at the festival we met up with Uncle Bill and Aunt Paula and visited the booths of various artisans and listened to Shanghaied on the Willamette. We were directed to a restaurant "a couple blocks" away for lunch. Since the distance was short, we decided to walk. We walked...and walked...down a hill, around a bend...by an abandoned baseball field and through a residential area before finally arriving at the rustic place where we enjoyed a scrumptious, gourmet lunch. Then we had to walk back. All I can say is that we learned something about Florence "blocks".

Saturday evening we participated in the Youth Talent Folk Music Competition, coming in (a close!) second! We enjoyed the competition thoroughly, and afterwards were able to stay and soak up the entire Misty River concert from the wings of the stage. When we get the professional photographer's pictures I hope to do a post detailing the youth competition. Later on, we went to the Best Western Hotel and joined other musicians in a jam session. It was, I think, the largest session I've ever participated in! Because there were four of us, we were made to do two songs when our open mic time came around. :) Everyone enjoyed the spontaneous arrangements of "Mairi's Wedding" and "Star of the County Down."

Over the course of the next few days we enjoyed long walks on the beach...

Noah found this shelter someone had made from driftwood.

Noah got lots of extra exercise throwing his football.

The dunes where beautiful... as I came to the top of one, natural highways, ridges and dense patches of beach grass would spread out all around me.

On Monday we visited "Devil's Churn".

The fitly name describes this cavern of volcanic rock well. It was magnificent to watch the foamy waves come in, crash on the rocks, and then collide with the next waves on the way out, churning. 

And some of the waves definitely appeared to form the heads of white horses. "...and he half fancied that he saw amid the water white riders upon white horses with frothing manes." (J.R.R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowhip of the Ring, chapter XII, "Flight to the Ford")

My Mom and Dad ♥

Noah geared up to go.

Goofin' off before leaving Tuesday morning.

We spent a little time in Old Town before heading home. Noah and Dad were really disappointed about this candy shop being closed. Anyway, what's a beach trip without getting saltwater taffy and fudge? (Thankfully we found another shop that was open!)

All in all, we had a delightful time!

Cheers ~ Kathrina