[Florence, OR, Jan 16, 2026]

With no travel on my calendar, a long weekend in mid January for MLK and a gorgeous weather forecast for the Oregon coast, we decided on a last-minute escape. I am starting to like these last minute trips. We booked this a week in advance, just like the WA golden larches and John Day Fossil Beds.

We had previously been as far south as Newport, OR. This time, we wanted to check out points south such as Yachats, a small artists’ community; Cape Perpetua, a 2,700-acre scenic area with the highest car-accessible viewpoint (800 ft) on the Oregon Coast; and Florence, OR, the starting point of 40 miles of coastal sand dunes that stretch south from the Siuslaw river to Coos river. Although it bears the same name, the Oregon Florence is nothing like the Italian one, but it’s pretty in its own way.

We left around noon on Friday and since we had lots of daylight left, we took the coastal route down to Florence. A slowdown south of Newport ate away some of our time, but we managed to see the sunset at this viewpoint just south of the Heceta Head Lighthouse.

We checked into our hotel and looked online for some restaurant suggestions. I called the Waterfront Depot, and they said they had a 3-hour wait! “What about the bar?”, I asked. “The wait IS for the bar! All of our tables are booked.” Luckily, the next place we called, Maple Street Bistro, had availability. In fact, the proprietor, Monika, opens for reservations only. She didn’t have any that night but we happened to catch her open with no other patrons! The restaurant has a rotating menu of European and Polish specialties. I started with the traditional Polish soup zurek. Its fermented rye flavor was to die for! For our main dishes, we settled on the venetian duck ragout and seafood pasta. It was all delicious, and we enjoyed chatting with Monika and hearing the story of how she came to the US. It was a great first night on the coast!