Florence, OR - South Jetty Resort Park

South Jetty Beach is located in the town of Florence and another of our seven day stopovers. We did a walking tour of the town's shopping/tourist district stopping to browse in many of the small shops along the way. Visitors were noticeably absent and we asked one of the shopkeepers why that was. He said Oregon has a very short summer season and it hadn't started yet. I told him that I was originally from New England and it too has a limited tourism season. We agreed that tourism in these areas is definitely a function of sunshine and warm weather. During our stay in Florence we had several occasions to drive the fifty some odd miles along the spectacular Oregon coast line to the town of Newport. It turns out that I have long lost relatives in Newport and we made arrangements to have lunch with Maureen Florez and her husband. We had a fantastic time getting to know one another and Maureen put out an elaborate spread of home cooked foods for lunch. I was glad Bill and I had thought to contribute by bringing along a pot of homemade beans and a fresh garden salad. Newport, we discovered, has a wonderful candy/ice cream shop and we couldn't resist stopping off to pick up a box of assorted fudge for the Florez family. Naturally we treated ourselves to an ice cream while we were right there. A shortage of food is not something we ever experience.

I had a great discussion with Maureen about tourism in there area. She told me that the salmon fishing industry has dried up leaving tourism as the primary viable source of income for the surrounding communities. This is disconcerting given the fact that the number of annual visitors is on the decline. (Maureen's husband, a local salmon fisherman, has resorted to spending a great deal of time away from home fishing the waters off the coast of Alaska).