The 4th of July in Bend

4th of July found us in Bend, Oregon. Two reasons...First, we recently purchased a small house in the downtown core area of Bend for rental purposes and needed to get started on fixing it up, and second to visit David and enjoy the Bend lifestyle. We were brave and decided not to rent a hotel room and spend the two nights on the floor of the house. Camping, right? Didn't unpack the gear from McKenzie River and pulled it out at the new house. Well, the smoke infested carpet and walls, and the really hard floor, along with lack of air-conditioning encouraged us to rent a room the second night. Mind you, it was probably the cheapest room in Bend at the Westward Ho!

On the 4th, we spent the morning in downtown Bend with what it seems must have been the whole town of Bend. A great tradition is the Pet Parade that has been going on since the 1920's. They had to quit allowing cats at some point, but everyone with a dog (and in Bend that is thousands of people!) shows up to parade their pooch through the streets of downtown. David and Jenna walked Jibber (the poodles had to stay home). We also saw a pet goose, rabbit, and gold fish (!?)

This poor dog was tied to helium balloons and spent the parade 10 feet above the ground. His owner had him on a leash...

After the parade we wandered through Drake Park and enjoyed the craft booths, food and music. They even had typical races for the kids i.e. three-legged, sack, etc. Also, flinging balls from a giant slingshot out into the Deschutes at hula hoop targets.

We did work that afternoon on the house. David helped to tear out the stinky and disgustingly dirty carpet. I removed what seemed like thousands of staples from the floor underneath. Mark tore down a random "room" that had been started but not finished in the garage. We will get new carpet, paint inside and out, a new roof, and put down some barkdust before we rent it out. We are trading the paint job with an excellent painter : ) for a buydown of the rent. He also agrees to let us store some items in the garage.

On Sunday, we rented a mountain bike for Jenna for her maiden voyage on a mountain bike trail. We drove the short distance to the Aspen Camp trailhead along the river and started our bike ride there. We did the Deschutes River Tail. The trail goes all the way to Sunriver to the South and to Benham Falls to the north. We rode to Benham Falls and back. Enjoyed a stop at Dillon Falls along the way. Had to make the stops short because the mosquitos were in full bloom. Had a great time. Great buff trail, a pretty meadow and breathtaking Falls. Jenna did great for her first time. Hopefully, she'll let us take her out again.

We took in the fireworks from the second floor walkway of the Westward Ho. We were joined by another couple that was meeting for the first time and had met on Facebook! We shared our wine with them while we watched the show off of Pilot Butte. The joke is that every year the fireworks start a fire on the Butte. At one point in the show we could see all the fire engine lights go on and a big flame. I guess it was a joke put on by the promoters!

We enjoyed getting familiar with the new neighborhood and it's eateries. Had a great smoothie at Mother's Cafe, and a great breakfast bagel sandwich at Big O Bagels. Dinners were at Longboard Louie's for a great fish taco with a dollar beer, and Cibelli's Pizza for one of the biggest slices of pepperoni pizza I've ever had! Breakfast at the Westside Bakery was homemade granola, fresh fruit and yogurt. All of these were within two blocks of the new place!

We'll be back in a week for more rehab and I want to float the river like a local.

Paradise along the McKenzie River

Car-Camping! Mark and I met several good friends at the Paradise Campground along the McKenzie River for a weekend of biking, relaxing and sleeping on the ground. Actually most of our friends have real RV's so they didn't sleep on the ground. : ) We got a great site right along the river and enjoyed sitting in our camp chairs on the bank. As our neighbors Dennis and Maureen called it "the veranda". We had to break out our car camping gear which hasn't been used for many moons. We have backpacked several times in the past few years, but this is all different gear. Ended up making a list of what we need to get for next time which will be my birthday trip to the Wallowas in August. Used a big tent that neither of us has slept in before, only used by teenage boys (David and assorted friends and cousins). It worked great, as did the Coleman stove.

We had great weather. Warm but cool at night. Saturday we biked the McKenzie River Trail, which is supposedly in the top 10 in mountain biking trails in the nation. It is a tough one. 26.5 biles from beginning to end. Our group split up into two. One group did a car shuttle to the top at Clear Lake and rode down to the campground. About 24 miles I think. I have done that part of the trail before and didn't remember that I liked it that much (and I didn't even do the last 8 miles!) I joined the group that rode out and back from our campground almost to the reservoir. This is where I had stopped on my previous ride. We had a great time. Got lots of good exercise riding the slightly uphill and really uphill on the way out, and then mostly downhill on the way back. One great feature is all of the bridges along the way. Always a challenge to fit yourself AND a bike over. Felt like a rookie when I only filled my Camelbak 1/3 full and ran out of water before we even reached the turnaround point. Then had no lunch for the "lunch stop". Not sure what I was thinking, but thank goodness for nurse Maureen who let me suck her Camelbak dry and gave me a PayDay bar to eat. Bad Mazama I am. Enjoyed the ride and then waited for the other group to return.

We had a good old-fashioned weenie roast that night. Only one incident of "weenie down" in the firepit. Enjoyed catching up with good friends.

Sunday we biked to Belknap Hot Springs (about 2 miles on the trail) with Dennis and Maureen and paid $7 for an hour enjoying the hot springs pool at the resort. They had ice cream so we had to get that too...

Favorite part of the weekend was enjoying early morning coffee by the river with Michael and Diane. One of those "life is good" moments for sure.

On our return trip we took an alternate route and stopped to see Sahalie Falls and Clear Lake and had lunch in Detroit.

There are dozens of campgrounds in the McKenzie River area. I want to go back!!! The Clear Lake Resort looked like a must do to me, with the clearest water I've ever seen.

Hot Time in Tucson

I left Mark home for five days and flew to Tucson, Arizona with three generations of Stark girls. Kammy, Mom, Erin and I went for Erin's orientation/registration for her freshman year at University of Arizona. We stayed at the Marriott right at the entrance to the university and right next to University St. which is the main drag for retail for the university district. I was impressed with the size and number of retailers (comparing to U of O's). U of A is a huge school with over 36,000 students, so that makes sense. The Marriott was a great location, but we were disappointed with the lack of free Wi Fi, breakfasts, and no frigs/microwaves in the room. What is that? When we tried to upgrade to a room with a frig/microwave there wasn't anything available so the totally awesome front desk clerk gave us the secret key to the concierge level. We took full advantage of that, of course, with late night desserts, and all the snacks you could smuggle out. Ate on University most nights. Frog and Firkin (Pub grub. Googled Firkin: similar to a keg in old British times), Vida Thai (slow service and probably the worst Pad Thai I've had), Which wich (a sandwich shop where you place your order on the paper bag in which they serve it to you), a Mediterranean restaurant(had a dish with rice, lentils, chick peas with elbow macaroni in tomato sauce served on top!), and Gentle Ben's brewpub (great outdoor upstairs balcony to enjoy a beer on a warm summer night).

It was HOT!!! I can't remember sweating so much in my life without actually doing some sort of physical activity. Had to check the seat of my pants a few times when I got up to make sure my sweat didn't make me look like I had wet my pants. : ) We managed with the great misters that restaurants have, and spending many hours by the pool.

While Kam and Erin did registration events, Mom and I hired a taxi to take us to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. I highly recommend this if you are in Tucson. It is a "living" museum in an outdoor setting.

I love the desert beauty with it's flora and fauna so different from the Pacific Northwest. We did the tour with a tour guide, Carmen. It was a great way to see the museum and learn so much more than you would walking it on your own.

My favorite exhibits were the bird aviary and hummingbird aviary. You could sit on a bench and watch birds up close. Saw a hummingbird's nest with a hummingbird sitting on it!

On another day, we took a ride to 4th Street on the old restored trolley that runs between that street and University. Struck up a conversation with the conductor and found out he had family in Salem, and had ridden the Portland Streetcar, the trolley that runs between the Southwaterfront and Lake Oswego, and the train that went to Astoria during the Lewis and Clark Celebration. A real buff. 4th Street seemed very '60's-like with "retro" shops and hippy-wear. Interesting, but not my style. May also have been that it was over 100 degrees and window shopping required constant rehydration!

I enjoyed my time seeing the University district part of the city. I did several runs in the early morning before it got too hot and ran through the campus. I was amazed at the size and proximity of the football, baseball, basketball, and softball stadiums. Erin's dorm will be right next to the football stadium (or as they call it Bear Down Stadium). Sounds a little too much like childbirth to me. Named by men I'm sure. : )

We will be back in November to see the Ducks play. Looking forward to cooler temperatures and seeing more of the city.