ontheroad- OR coast, vacation, lighthouses

Sunday Aug 9

We left Bandon and stopped at the Coquille River lighthouse.

This as many of them is located at the point where the river meets the Pacific Ocean. I had thouhgt that the lighthouses were up to protect ships from foundering on ;nearby rocks; but is eems that many of them were there to show the mariners where they were and that they were at a safe harbor if they wanted one. Ships had mariner maps that showed each lighthouse and the captain could just count them and always know where he was. The Oregon Coast has lots of beach grass that sit on dunes. I always noted this on Cape Cod but not on South Jersey or FL beaches so I was wondering if it were unique to Cape Cod--but it was noted here that these grasses are not native vegetation but were brought in to hold the sand to keep the sand from blowing all over the coastal towns. They hold the sand quite well and form dunes of the sand blowing away from the oean. We visited the Haceta lighthouse above Florence. We also saw a lighthuse in Menocino CA. In none of these lighthouses did the lighthouse keeper's family live in the lighthouse but had houses built (as well as the assistant and assistant lighthouse keepers family having houses). For my library friends, lets note that part of the quarterly supplies dropped off for lighthuse keepers was a rotating library collections of 40 books at a time to each station.

We spent time talking to people along the way. I spoke with a Texan who had lived 9 months in Carmel being trained to speak Sicilian Italian as part of his job in the FBI. We met an older man from West VA traveling alone and a family from Vancouver WA whose kids participated in national history day contests.