Pacific Northwest Family Summer Vacation - Day 5 - Bandon Dunes Golf, Bullard Beach, Face Rock, Old Town Bandon & More

Day 5 - The whole day in Bandon, Oregon

We woke up in the absolute cutest cottage with Blake and I downstairs in the comfty bed and the 3 kids tucked away in the small upstairs room. I thought about how this 600 square foot cottage would be my ideal lake or mountain house.... small, simple and cozy but in the best location on Earth. While the girls slept in passed 6AM, the boys woke up, super excited about their very special golf day. Carter and Blake headed down to the stunning beach outside our back door to explore. There were many large rocks to climb on, a signature feature we have come to adore about Oregon beaches. They returned home with a stunning dead purple starfish and stories of climbing rocks.

We then took the boys to Bandon Dunes Golf Course and left them for 6-7 hours of amazing golf. There are absolutely no golf carts allowed there, so they walked the magical 18 holes with many of them along the Pacific Coast.

Blake's Memories of the Round of Golf:

This was by far the most breathtaking, amazing golf course I have ever played. Carter and I ended up playing with the perfect pairing.  It was a retired couple from Florida, so Carter was able to play from the women's tees with her. The woman and Carter ended up shooting around the same score. I will never forget the first hole and hitting perfect shot in to the green and having the ball roll back down the front.  When I got to my ball I had to look straight up 30 feet and couldn't even see the flag to the green above me.  This was a challenge.   There was 3 holes on the front nine and 3 holes on the back that were along the ocean and they were amazing.  Bandon Dunes most famous hole is number 16.  It is a par 4 playing about 330 yards.   This happens to be the hole I got a video of Carter smashing his drive and he ended up getting bogey only because he 3 putted( had a really good chance to make a birdie).  Carter actually surpassed my expectations.  He had not played an actual round of golf in almost a year and after the first couple of holes he did nothing but improve.   He shot a 105 from the women tees and I shot a 90 from the Blue tees.   This is a golf course I will never forget and hope to one day play again.

Carter's Memories of the Round of Golf:

The girls and I were excited about a girl's day, so we drove less than a mile down highway 101 to checkout Bullard State Park. It’s well known for the driftwood that washes up and seeing some of the structures that have been made with it over the years was pretty cool. Although it was pretty cool out at 9AM, the girls “galloped” around the beach pretending to be horses - "Sandy" and "Violet," inspired by the  4 horses that had been ridden by.

We went back to the Windermere and packed up and headed, on a whim, to Face Rock, which ended up being Addison’s very favorite beach. It truly was a great one. We knew nothing about it but just seeing it’s natural beauty with dozens and dozens of large rocks both on the shore and out in the ocean. We brought a picnic lunch and just explored and explored and explored. I found it hard to sit down anywhere on this trip. A few times, I even had the full intentions of just sitting and watching the kids play, but as we would walk away hours later, I would realize that I hardly sat down once because there was so much to explore. Addie loves Face Rock because she could just climb and climb. We knew Carter would be devasted to miss this place as he had become obsessed with tidal pools and the starfish and sea annenomiea you could easily find in them. One of my favorite parts of this morning was talking to local woman who lived nearby and she shared her story of visiting Bandon 26 years ago on vacation and how she and her husband made it their goal to move here. It took 8 years but they did in fact get good jobs in their early 30’s and moved their young family here and have been here ever since. She shared so much about the town and told us about finding agate rock down by the jetty.

We left Face Rock reluctantly mid afternoon to go check out "Old Bannon." The kids I walked around the area and scoped out some spots to bring the boys back to after we went and picked them up. Once we had the boys, we were excited to explore Old Bandon more and eat at Bandon Fish Market. This was the place everyone talked about and when we were walking by during the lunch hour, there was a line 90 minutes long to get fish and chips there. So we happy with only a 45 minute wait for fish and chips at 3PM.

While we waited, we checked out a remarkable organization called Washed Ashore. Washed Ashore builds and exhibits aesthetically powerful art to educate a global audience about plastic pollution in oceans and waterways and spark positive changes in consumer habits. What they do was remarkable and the art they make out of the trash they find on the beaches is truly jaw dropping.

After doing some more shopping, we explored  Weber's Pier where dozens of people were fishing from crab. We even got into the fun and the 'holding of the crabs," went much smoother this time. 

Follow the advice of the local I had met that morning, we went to the beach closest to the jetty to hunt for agate. It obviously was the hot suffering area, as well. We watched the surfers, found agate rocks and said goodbye to Bandon before we had an easy drive an hour south to Golds Beach, for the night.

In Gold Beach, we stayed at The Pacific Inn and watched the sun set at the beach. This evening's ocean seemed exceptionally rough at this part of the coast. It's ironic that Gold Beach was a black sand beach and we had fun that night watching the gigantic waves and Carter and Addison try to prevent the waves from entering their circle. After a trip to the hot tub, we turned in after another amazing day in Oregon.