So I surprise Mrs. Bean with a spontaneous trip to the coast. I arranged for a friend to watch The Bean Himself and The Sprout and spirited her away for a night in Florence and then a hike on the Oregon Coast.We had a great room with a view of the Siuslaw River Bridge. I was wide awake at sunrise so wandered out and let Mrs. Bean sleep. I took a walk over the historic bascule bridge designed by Conde B. McCullough. that was opened to traffic in 1936. While crossing I took few benchmark photos along the way. After the walk Mrs. Bean & I joined up and we headed over to downtown Florence for some coffee.
After a quick tour of old town and a delightful cache, (Democracy Under Pressure) which is located in one of the stores, we headed back across the river and grabbed a geocache named (Prichard's Perch) at a little wayside.
Then it was on south to our goal of the day. There was a breif stop for a cache (McCullough's NW TB B&B) that has a great view of another Conde B. McCullough Bridge. This one being his namesake.
We had been reading about a mystery shipwreck in the news that had been uncovered by winter storms. By the time we went searching for it the ship had been identified as the George L. Olson. Along the way and just up the beach a bit was the wreck of the M/V New Carrissa so we had a chance of seeing two shipwrecks in one outing. We opted to hike in over the dunes. in retrospect the best way would have been to hike up the beach but the dunes were beautiful.
The New Carissa was a bit more impressive than I expected. The size of her was more than I had anticipated and it was only a portion of the ship. Photos can't do her justice. We found the two caches at the location. An old virtual (Wreck of the New Carrissa) and a newer ammo can cache (New Carrisa by Flight Control) .
Next we made the trek on down to the Olsen wreck. We were the only ones hiking and we had to continually get out of the way of 4X4's who were driving out to see the wreck as well. Some of the dune buggies that came by were traveling so fast they really made me nervous. We grabbed our final geocache of the hike (North Jetty #3) along the way and after this last one we were only a short way from the wreck. Stepping to the edge of the sand wall it was a real thrill to see. Just as I turned on the camera and put it to my eye a jeep screamed into view and slid to a stop. They sat there for about thirty seconds then tore off down the beach again.
We scrambled down to the wreck and I was as impressed with George as I was with Carissa. Much more of this ship lies beneath the sand than is exposed but the site of this small portion still inspired a feeling of touching forgotten history.
The tide was starting to make its way in so we started our walk out. It had taken us about two hours to hike in over the sand and we were feeling it. I started longing for a ride in one of those 4X4's that had annoyed me earlier. We must have been looking pretty ragged because finally a guy pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride. Yes! We did. We climbed in the back of his pickup and rested for about two miles. I kept an eye on the GPS screen and when we were almost due west of our van I knocked on his windo and indicated we needed to get out. He looked at me like I was nuts. I pointed to the dunes and said our van is right over there and he did a double take and was convinced we were nuts. By the 
time we made the long haul over the dunes I figured he was probably right in his assessment. We hiked around seven miles but we were more tired than many a hike in the woods that was much much longer.On the drive backup north I stopped and snagged one last cache (Basketball) that was near an Oregon State Beaver Board Historical sign commemorating Jedediah Smith.
We stopped for dinner at sundown in Florence. Tired but satisfied. I had my eye on the Hot Rod Grill for some time and decided to make it our dinner stop tonight. It is full of nostalgia in and out. Including some vintage kiddie rides, antique gas pumps, and a few booths and decor that is made out vintage car bodies. Service was adequate, the food passable and the atmosphere great. The final hours drive home was uneventful and pleasant with remembrances of the day and discussions about the challenges of parenthood and how much we missed the little legumes.
