Hansen Garden

One of the local attractions in Lincoln City is the Connie Hansen Garden. This is a property that is only a block or two from the beach and only a block off the Highway 101. It is a garden that has been preserved since the death of the developer in the 1990's. The timing was a little off for us and many of the azaleas and rhodie's had already bloomed, even though the prime time for a visit is the April-May time frame. We thought that maybe there has been too much rain this month which caused the plants to bloom earlier (?). We did take some pictures of the garden as there were some beautiful plants still in bloom. The first picture is of the welcome sign, of course:

Following are some more shots we took while walking along the paths:


The following picture is of the tall rhododendron in the middle of the above picture. We've never seen a rhododendron this tall before. The trunk was as thick as a tree trunk and must be 40 -50 years old, at least:

The following shot is of a beautiful white rhododendron that was also a tall plant:

This was a very beautiful garden but it would never compete with Butchardt Gardens in Vancouver. Of course, it isn't meant to either. This was the result of a huge effort by a woman that loved rhododendrons and azaleas and wanted to create something for herself to enjoy. It is a wonderful legacy that she has left.

Of course, we had to take the road that the Garden was on to the end - where it came out to a beach. Below is the "Beach Shot" of the day:

While standing here and watching the water and the people walking up and down this section of the beach, an individual that has lived here for the last 15 years approached me and started a conversation about the area. He pulled out this annual planner from his pocket and showed me the total rainfall totals for the last 10 years. There hasn't been a year since 2000 that the annual rainfall here has been less than 82 inches, and the highest was around 122 inches. Wow! No wonder we are wet all the time. I told him it seemed like a rain forest and he indicated there was one - the Siletz Rain Forest - about 5 miles down the road. Sheesh! I tried to find it on the Internet and couldn't, so I wonder how much of what he told me was true.

Anyway, today is our second day off and it is partly cloudy again so we probably will try to go someplace that will be interesting. We'll have the results tomorrow...