Today didn’t go exactly as planned, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good day. We started the day with breakfast in the lobby of the hotel. The clerk at the front desk, Vickie, was a riot and definitely added to the enjoyment of the meal. After a quick bite, we were off…heading west across the Great Sandy Desert towards Bend. It was a warm 25°C, and we were grateful for the A/C in the car. This was another day when there were times that there were no cars in sight…and seemingly no civilization around.
About halfway between Burns and Bend we passed through Brothers, which is basically just a post office, a couple of houses and a rest area.
Just after we passed through Brothers, I added a new bird to my bird list…a Mountain Bluebird. I was unable to get a picture as I was driving at the time, but I am positive as to its identification – even Mum hadn’t seen one before. We decided against visiting Newberry Volcanic Monument today, and opted instead to have lunch in Sisters.
We parked the car in the shade on a back street and picnicked on leftovers. While eating we also espied several Pinyon Jays and Gray Catbirds flitting around the Ponderosa Pines. After eating we walked around the downtown area and did some window shopping as well as look at the local objet d’art. The town hadn’t changed much since we were here two years ago, however, my leather store was gone (recently it seems). The flags that they used to have for crossing the street were also gone but we understand that is just temporary as they are fixing up the “main drag”. Mum was happy to see that the Quilt Shop (The Stitchin Post) was still there and she picked up two fat quarters and a cute tote bag pattern.
We left Sisters just before 3 and headed back to Bend to check in to our hotel. After relaxing for a couple of hours at the hotel (while watching Triple D) we headed out to dinner at Deschutes Brewery & Pub. As we neared downtown, we noticed that a couple of the streets we closed and it seemed like a street fair was going on. After parking, we learned it was Bend’s Oktoberfest. I am not one for crowds, but Mum told me to make some lemonade (When life gives you lemons…), so I decided to brave it – I’m glad I did.
We walked the block or so to the pub and found that it was surprisingly quiet…probably because everyone was drinking at the street party. After perusing the menu Mum decided on the Moroccan Salad and I had a pretzel and hot wings. We also decided to have a beer sampler which is six 4-oz servings of beer. Since this trip is about going outside of my comfort zone, I chose several types of beer that were new to me. I chose Black Butte Porter, Deschutes River Ale, Mirror Pond Pale Ale, Oktoberfest, Botanic Ale, and finally Bachelor Bitter. I chose the ones with the lowest IBUs, and was quite surprised that I enjoyed all of them, especially the Porter.
After dinner we walked around the street festival for a few minutes and then headed back to the hotel. All in all, it was a great day.
Talk to you soon and thank you for reading.
L
