Every year for the past 3 years I have strived to take my kids on a "Christmas Adventure" sometimes they know in advance what we will do, and sometimes it is a total surprise. This year my husband won a trip to Florence Beach, OR. The trip had to be used by the end of this year and we only have 3 weeks remaining in the year. The first of the 3 weeks we are still in school, and working full time so it didn't really seem like an option. The week following is the week of Christmas and the week after that is the week of New Years. I was not thrilled at all to be planning a trip at this time, but we decided the weekend before the week of Christmas was best...now to take the kids or not, but trying to squeeze in our "Christmas adventure" plus a trip was over complicating things, so the kids came along. A friend on FB had posted about visiting Shore Acres Park in Coos Bay OR. and a park with 300,000 twinkling Christmas lights seemed right up our alley.
The Itinerary:
Drive to Driftwood Shores Resort in Florence
Stay night and have breakfast in Florence
Drive to Coose Bay and spend the day
3:00 plan on being at Shore Acres
See Christmas Lights in the park
Drive home around 6:30
Be home around 10pm.
The Hotel/Resort
Driftwood Shores- We stayed in a double queen room with a kitchenette and ordered a roll away bed.
The room was nice, clean, had a big screen T.V and walked directly out onto the beach. It was not fancy or to plain, the best way to describe it would be nice. Since my husband's work had made the hotel arrangements I didn't know until we got there that there would be a kitchen, but I was greatful. The kitchen was very nice as well. The only downside to our hotel room was that the heat was apperantly broken because it was probably 70+ degrees in our room all night, we ended up sleeping with the back door open. Also this hotel should invest in better mattresses, they were incredibly hard and uncomfortable. Bonus, the swimming pool is so kid friendly they have toys in the pool room just for kids.
Dinner
We ate at the Resort Restaurant - Surfside Restaurant and Lounge
Great atmospere, probably would be somewhat uncomfortable for parents of small children as it is a quite and small place and we found that most of the crowd was 60 and older. But we have a 10, 11 and 13 year old and they know how to behave so we found it very enjoyable. The Food, The kids order: 2 cheeseburgers and a fish and chips platter. The food was big and good, the fish and chips were easily 3 fillets of cod and about 3 1/2 cups of french fries. The burgers were good and juicy with equal amounts of fries. The Grown up orders: 1 12oz. prime rib dinner with mashed potatoes and green beans and 1 moracan chicken with date and apple compote, jasmine rice, and seasoned green beans. The Prime Rib was well worth the 25.00 price tag, the meat was melt in your mouth tender and perfectly seasoned(each bite). The moracan chicken was good, the chicken was a little over done and so it was chewy but the compote on top well compensated for the chewy chicken. For dessert, 4 vanilla bean creme brule's and a chocolate lava cake. The kids had never had creme brule but it is my favorite and due to my lack of torch at home I order one whenever I can. The boys loved it, I loved it, my daughter said ..... "eh". My husband had the lava cake, which my daughter finished off for him, and it was really good also. Overall I would say this resteraunt is amazing, the wait staff was great. The drink sizes are small, but the food is fabulous. Take the time to enjoy this restaurant.
