On a springtime Sunday afternoon in Florence, the Chamber of Commerce is closed. However, across the street The Sportsman, a local staple for tourist activity and equipment, is open and ready for business. Jolene Pinkey, who has owned the shop with her husband, Warner, for more than 50 years, is as happy to distribute information on activities as she is selling crab rings and ATV equipment.
“We’ve been here so many years, we know everything about everything,” Pinkey said. “Anybody who wants to call ahead and ask about the weather … We don’t embellish. We’ll look out at the western sky and tell you: sun, rain, or take your chances.”
If students are willing to take such a chance, and make the hour-and-
15-minute drive from the University, the quaint community holds a number of pleasantries.
Bay Street, the picturesque, four-block strip of downtown, has dozens of shops, boutiques and restaurants well worth exploring.
Just under the historic Siuslaw River Bridge is Coffee Roasters, a favorite for locals and visitors. The shop’s interior provides a warm escape from misty afternoons. Despite the rainy-day mood, barista Jessie Hayward is quick to note that an influx is coming.
“Right now, springtime means college students and a few tourists, but Rhody Days will be incredibly busy,” Hayward said, referring to the third weekend in May, when Florence is flooded with an annual surge for the Rhododendron Festival. “It’ll pretty much be summer for a weekend, which means like 2,000 people a day coming through.”

After grabbing a hot cup of Florence’s best coffee, a stroll down Bay Street offers a unique shopping
experience. Shop offerings range from wood carvings to kites and, of course, salt water taffy. Wind Drift Gallery, located on “the most hopping corner in town,” according to manager Diana Pitcher, offers an array of the candies alongside T-shirts, souvenirs and more.
“Save on dentistry work,” Pitcher advised. “Eat a piece of taffy.”
For a more filling meal, the obvious choice is clam chowder, and Florence has some of the best. Local favorites include Traveler’s Cove, I.C.M. and the Firehouse, which has taken top prize from the town’s annual Chowder, Blues and Brews Festival more than once. For alternatives to seafood and chowder, Hayward recommends Paisano’s, a Bay Street pizzeria she claims has “the best pizza in the world.”
Eleven miles north of Florence is Sea Lion Caves, perhaps the region’s most famous attraction. The destination, which is home to the largest sea cave in the world, attracts huge crowds year round. The gift shop, which towers cliffside 300 feet above the Pacific Ocean, is the gateway to the caves, the only mainland home to Steller Sea
Lions in the world.
“If you want to see them in the cave, the best time to come is the first of the year through early May, when it’s stormy” manager Tom Douglas said.
The narrated elevator ride down not only pops the ears, but it also opens its doors to the massive, rocky interior cave, which on this day is populated by more than 250 roaring, clumsy beasts. From the south entrance of the cave, an ethereal lights cuts through the rocky darkness.
A dull weekend in Eugene can provide more than enough excuses to
escape for the day, and the friendly
locals in Florence are more than
happy to dispense inspiration.