Bend 1: Arrival and First Day

Wednesday 9/13

Normally we’d be on the road earlier and maybe have lunch at 3 Creeks Brewing in Sisters (so far I have never gone there, but Dave and Josh and Jen have), but Dave had his first Renaissance recorder class until 11:00, so we made sandwiches (PBJ for me, salami & cheese for him) and ate them on the road. I brought some small apples I’d gotten at the farmers’ market and they turned out to be perfect. The drive was uneventful, aside from stopping for gas at an aukuard gas station in Aumsville which we won’t do again.

We got to Tumalo at about 3:30 and slid into site B18; it’s on the corner so it’s especially easy to back into. We got set up and took a walk around the campground, then did some hanging out (and showering in my case) until it was time to go to 900 Wall. We ordered too much food and while it was very good I remember it as being more spectacular. One thing that remains spectacular is their cocktail made with habanero vodka and passion fruit – last time it was almost undrinkably spicy; this time it was just very very very spicy and very delicious.

We got back to the campsite and settled in for more relaxing (relaxing being one of our major goals this trip). I had realized about 15 minutes from home that I left my kindle, but it didn’t seem worth turning back for it since I can read my kindle books on my phone. I thought about 1) having Jen ship it overnight or 2) getting a new one and having Amazon ship it overnight, except this is the second time I’ve looked into that and they can never get it to you in less than 3 days, which is dumb. Also we weren’t sure where we’d have it shipped to. So I just read on my phone, which was mostly fine except that for some reason reading on my phone (even with blue light blocker) doesn’t make me sleepy the way reading on my kindle does, so I stayed up later than I wanted to.

Thursday

Dave has figured out how to hang a towel over the trailer door, which makes it stay dark very long in the morning, so we tend to sleep in until after 7. We got up and decided to see if the trail from the Tumalo SP day use area connects to Riley Ranch nature preserve and we’re back to tell you that yes, yes it does. It’s about two miles from the parking lot at Tumalo to the start of the ranch lands, and we walked a little ways into Riley Ranch and up to the canyon overlook. No dogs are allowed in the nature preserve which is very nice – I was surprised how much it made things more relaxing. The whole walk ended up being about 5 miles, and since most of it is relatively flat it was a nice easy hike. We did see some weird damp spots on the trail that we couldn’t figure out – individual drips spaced pretty close together, and occasionally a larger damp patch, maybe the size of my hand. They are a mystery.

Once we got back it was time to return to the Cellar, an English-style pub in a basement in downtown Bend. Last time we were there we loved all their cask conditioned beers. Sadly, since then they’ve closed their Redmond facility and had to start brewing somewhere else, so they only had 3 of their own beers and 4 imported eEnglish beers. No need to fret, though – they were just as delicious. And best of all the pies (served with crisps, gravy, and your choice of mushy peas or English baked beans) were just as good as we remembered. We brought 4 frozen ones home with us. We did a little window shopping through downtown – like Cannon Beach, so many home décor shops.

Then it was time for more relaxing, and showers, before heading out for dinner. Our destination tonight was Trattoria Sbandati, a small restaurant which turned out to be in a strip mall, next to a circle K gas station. So maybe a slight mark down for ambiance, although they had a nice outdoor patio and the inside was nice enough. The food gets an E for exceeds expectations, and they had a very good wine by the glass list for Dave. We had a thin sliced zuccinin and arugula salad to start that was delicious, and I had a fish in broth with spiced olives that was about perfect. Dave’s pasta was yummy too. On the way home we saw a cool sunset and pulled over to watch it. It's possible that what look like clouds are actually smoke from the Pete's Lake fire. Stay tuned.

We had our own fire back at the campground, and saw an amazingly long pass of the international space station. We discovered that one ice cube in the tea in the insulated mug makes it just cool enough for drinking. This was the first time I used one of the Cannon Beach Property Management mugs that we got at Sea Forever last Thanksgiving.