Dunes, a Casino, and Sea Lions

But no seatbelt!

The weather is overcast but it matches our gloomy spirits. (But only for a little while!) The reason we are in Florence and staying at Pacific Pines RV and Storage is twofold. We thought we had found an RV repair business to take care of installing a new passenger seatbelt AND the RV Park is almost right next door to the RV repair shop.

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Florence is not a first or second choice town for us to visit.

The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is south of the city and we already hiked the dunes with the dogs once when we were staying in Remote.

And renting a dune buggy or going on a group excursion are not real draws for us.

 oregonsadventurecoast.com

Besides we have the 2 dogs.

Three Rivers Casino Resort doesn’t tempt us either.

 florencechamber.com

Sea Lion Caves is north of Florence, but it’s more of a tourist attraction.

 sealioncaves.com

The venue is a privately owned wildlife preserve and bird sanctuary. It is the largest sea lion cave in America and year-round home to the Steller sea lion.

 marinemammalcenter.org

Formed from a cavern over 25 million years ago, the cave is accessible via an elevator that descends 208 feet. (sealioncaves.com) 

 oregonencyclopedia.org

For $14 apiece, Jeff and I relish our memories of the harbor seals we watched in Newport.

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So, we explore Florence. According to visittheoregoncoast.com, the Historic Old Town is quaint and lively. We drive through it twice, wondering what we are missing. I don’t even take any pictures.

We park and stroll along the boardwalk where I do take some pics.

And then I investigate the 2 seal sculptures we passed by.

This one is illustrated by artist Kassy Keppol and entitled, Diver’s Story. I enjoy the cartoonish drawings.

The second one is illustrated by artist Ron Hildenbrand and entitled, It’s a Wild Thing.

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Tomorrow we head to Port Orford for the Labor Day weekend and our final stop on the Oregon coast before heading into Northern California.