Out and about around Florence, Oregon

On Friday there were a few minutes of sun between rainstorms, so we took advantage of the break and headed into Florence.

Mileage to various Florences around North America - Florence Washington is 395 miles, Florence Arizona is 1256 miles, Florence Louisiana is 2473 miles, Florence South Carolina is 2911, and Florence Nova Scotia is 3717 miles. The Siuslaw River and harbor is the water that is in the picture behind the sign.

Another view of the mileage post

Our objective for going in to town... by the way... I did a search for "gelato near me" on google - it recommended BJ's (which doesn't have gelato, though their ice cream is good!) -- but it also brought up an article about gelato in another Florence (https://www.vogue.com/article/best-gelato-in-florence-a-guide) - Italy, that is!

We also went to Fred Meyer - the local Kroger/Frys affiliated grocery...

Right behind Fred Meyer was a big sand dune...

Which we decided to climb...

It was a little steeper than it originally looked...

And it got windier as we got near the top...

"What? There's no ocean visible from up here???"

Evidently the large sand dunes are due to the fact that the coastal mountains are further inland, and the rivers carry sediment out to the ocean that subsequently pounds the sand into very fine grains and redeposits it on the shore. These dunes are also unique because there are five large "tree islands" fully surrounded by dunes.

We also drove out on Saturday - we had heard that the surf was up due to the storms so we wanted to overlook the ocean.

Though there was a warning sign, no elk today...

We did get to an overlook of the sea north of Florence... it was foggy and raining too...

But we enjoyed seeing the waves!