Last week, Smithsonian.com released their list of “The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2014.” My personal favorite, Bandon, Oregon, did not make the list. On one hand, I am thankful that floods of tourist won’t clog the streets, on the other hand, I feel the need to set the record straight.
Bandon is a beach town on the central Oregon Coast 530 miles north of a San Francisco and 26 miles south of Coos Bay. It was founded in 1873 by an Irishman who named the town after his hometown, Bandon, Ireland in County Cork.
It is best known for its beautiful beaches, rock formations, cranberry bogs, the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort and the Couquille River Lighthouse (top image).
I first discovered Bandon about 25 years ago. In preparation for a road trip from Oakland to the San Juan Islands, I went into the American Youth Hostel office on Divisadaro in San Francisco and purchased my first AYH membership for about $50. With the membership pass, I received a guide book with a map of all the hostels around the United States. It was in this guide book that I discovered the Sea Star Hostel and Bandon, Oregon.
I soon began spending Thanksgivings up in Bandon. As a New Yorker who relocated to California right after graduating college, I have spent many a Thanksgiving on my own, far from my family. I could always count on finding other folks who were on the road on Thanksgiving for various reasons at the hostel each year. After dinner, I would don my Sony Walkman and roller skates and skate laps around Old Town while listening to The Eurythmics and the Clancey Brother on my mix tape.
Years have passed and I have exchanged the hostel for a hotel room with a kitchenette and wood burning stove overlooking the beach. I no longer zip around on my roller skates, but I still return each year at Thanksgiving, now with my partner and my son in tow. Our nine hour drive up highway 101 is punctuated by many stops. The Drive Thru Tree, a visit to Paul Bunyan and a gondola ride at the Trees of Mystery, petting the sharks at Ocean World, and a walk through the Prehistoric Garden are mandatory stops along the way.
If you ever have the opportunity to take a road trip along the magical Oregon coast, take a few days to explore Bandon. Perhaps like me, you will find yourself coming back again and again.
Images 1, 2, 4, 7 © author
Image 3 via Wikipedia
