Bend - "Do you spell that B-e-n-t?"

We woke up to a light pitter patter of rain on our roof. Steve once again took off in search of a fresh cup of coffee around 6:00 am while the boys and I slept in as best we could. Awake by no later than 6:30 and out of camp by 8:15 amidst a downpour. No reason to stick around and we were worried about the pass...

Which was great when we traveled over it. No problems traveling through the high desert plains, Warm Springs Reservation and into Redmond and Bend. Our campsite is actually south of Sunriver, a larger park that is only partially open at this time of year. So we have no sewer but water and electricity. It is windy and rainy here today but tomorrow is supposed to be worse.

After setting up camp by 11, we headed north on 97. We drove through Sunriver to get a little perspective of that resort town and then continued into the metropolis of Bend. Unfortunately the weather had not cooperated with us today. It has rained on and off all day and has been cold and windy with only the occasional sun breaks.

We spent the early afternoon walking around Bend and checking out the stores. Of particular interest were Dudley's (used book store), Powell's Sweets (incredible candy store) and a few outdoor gear shops. We spent a good hour in Dudley's, enoying hot chocolates and mochas while reading some used books we bought for the kids. Then we explored Powells and all of the candies of our youth (think Garbage Pail kids, Zots, Willie Wonka, the largest Pez collection ever and old fashioned sodas). We took a bag home for later in the trip to enjoy.

It was too cold to really enjoy Drake park but we did go for a short walk down the river. Steve saw a banded Canada goose, which evidently is the Holy Grail for hunters. We had to restrain him from jumping into the river to tackle the poor creature.

The boys enjoyed rootbeers and chips while Steve and I sampled the beers at the Bend Brewery. I especially enjoyed the seasonal Red while Steve had a little of everything on the seasonal menu.

Around 2 we realized that the boys were in need of a good energy break and we were limited on options. The children's museum has unfortunately closed. However, we saw a Fun Center that look promising and, keeping it a secret from the boys, headed that direction to see what we could find.

We spent the afternoon at a large Family Fun Center, completely enjoying the go-karts, bowling, bumper cars and arcade games. We had an absolute blast. I know that we can do all of these things near our home and that none were unique to Bend. But we never do those things at home and we did them here.. and had so much fun. The boys all beat me at bowling (OK - I suck at bowling) and we all had a good laugh at the bumper cars. We had the course to ourselves for go-karts so we soaked it up and the arcade was fun for all of us. I understand that this is a completely cheesy thing to do but we had a really fun time.

To end our evening in Bend we had dinner at McMenamins - St. Francis. Steve and I enjoyed really good beer and the food was great for all of us.

We are back at our cold and wet campsite now. It is supposed to rain (80% chance) tomorrow so we are planning to spend most of the day at the High Desert Museum. Should be a good place to hang out for the day.