Ann and I had a rare treat this summer: a visit from my oldest daughter Lillie who just finished her first year of residency in internal medicine in North Carolina. She took off the first week of her second year to visit us in Bend for three full days and two travel days. This was her first visit to Bend (she had visited us in McMinnville a couple times) and our first opportunity to meet her partner of a year, Steph. We put together a sort of greatest hits of Bend itinerary for them over the three days.
The girls' flight arrived at RDM on time around 2pm from Denver, but it took forever for them to get off the plane and onto the tarmac. Lillie quipped that they were assembling a new ladder from parts in a box. Ann went to meet them at the door to the terminal while I waited at the curb, twice shooing off the Redmond cop who wanted me and dozens of other cars to move along.
Although it was a typical sunny day in Central Oregon, as we drove up and back on the parkway to and from Redmond, the local peaks of Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, and the Three Sisters were partially obscured by diagonal slashes of rain, a forewarning of things to come. I promised the girls no rain while they were here as is typical of our summers; I lied.
It being already about 6pm Eastern time by the time we got back to Bend, I thought that the girls would be starving, looking for something simple for dinner, and wanting to crash early for a quiet night of sleep. We have a decent food truck scene in Bend that I wanted them to experience. Among many great options such as On Tap and Midtown Yacht Club, Podski stands out as one of our favorites. With that in mind, we stopped by the Podski food truck pod to get some burgers and beers. I am quite convinced that The Americana Truck at Podski has the best smashburger in Bend and I wanted the girls to try one. Nobody was disappointed!
Black clouds, gusty wind, and pelting rain drew our outdoor lunch to an abrupt closure and we headed just down the block to Market of Choice to grab a few things for a charcuterie board for munchies later on in the evening, if the girls were so inclined. While we were there, we also grabbed a loaf of striata bread from Village Baker, perhaps the best bread bakery in Bend. There are better bakers of pastries and a great sourdough microbakery in town, but the baguettes and other great loaves from Village Baker stand at the top of the local heap. Limited hours at the bakery generally see us pick up our loaves from one of the local supermarkets.
Sunday June 25: Oregrown, Old Mill, Deschutes River Trail, Crosscut Warming Hut
Sunday, I figured we would have a lazy morning with the girls still recovering from their travels and getting used to the change in time zones, so I planned nothing early. Later in the day, I had thought for us to walk down the Deschutes River Trail to the Box Factory where we could get a beer at our favorite tap house along with a great slice of Detroit-style pizza.
I'm starting to show my age in that I assumed a lazy morning would be desired. I was wrong. What is the first thing that youngsters from North Carolina want to do when visiting Oregon? Go to a dispensary, naturally! Although it wasn't even on my radar, we took a quick trip to Oregrown, the dispensary that many Bend residents feel is the best in town, especially for service.
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| Oregrown: So Many Choices! |
On the way back to the house, the girls wanted to stop at the Old Mill and wander about. We showed them the shops, the old power house with its triple smokestacks now home to REI, the footbridge across the river, and Hayden Homes Amphitheater, site of really wonderful outdoor concerts, one of the best venues I've ever been to and that includes Red Rocks in Colorado and Wolf Trap in Virginia.
I walk this particular stretch of the river multiple times a week, so I am very familiar with its seasonal rhythms, the water levels, the coming and going of the flora and fauna. So I was incredibly surprised while walking with Ann and the girls to come across a wildflower that I have never seen along the river, a Brown's Peony, alas not in bloom.
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| Brown's Peony, Paeonia brownii |
From the canyon where our house is, it's pretty trail walk until the Reed Market Bridge, where the path becomes paved and enters Farewell Bend Park. We skirted along the river through the park and then into the Old Mill district where we had been earlier in the morning. Ultimately, we arrived at Crosscut Warming Hut at the corner of Bond and Industrial.
The attraction of Crosscut is two-fold: first, they have a large and well-curated list of beers, primarily from Oregon; and second, it is home to the Abe Capanna's pizza cart. Although I am a die-hard fan of Neapolitan style pizza, I have come to love the Detroit-style pizza at Abe's. They coat the pan with a bit of cheese before putting in the dough to bake, yielding a crunchy and delicious edge all the way around the pie.
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| Excellent Detroit-Style Pizza from Abe Capanna's |
After pizza and beer, I was going to walk back home with the idea that the girls were going to take a Uber home. However, they decided that they needed to go to the Bend Store downtown to do a little shopping before catching a Uber home. As I left to head back up the river towards home, they walked a few more blocks into downtown. We arrived home within minutes of each other, Ann with a new throw pillow in tow.
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| Ann's New Acquisition from the Bend Store |
We did not eat all our pizza at lunch, not wanting to get totally stuffed before walking further. If we had, I doubt any of us would have wanted dinner. In the end, though, we all were a bit hungry and I made egg and black bean tacos for a quick munch before another early night.
Monday June 26: Tumalo Falls to Happy Valley, Bangers and Brews, Dinner at Home
Monday is the day that we ticked off the number one thing that the girls wanted to see: Tumalo Falls. Our trek up the hill from Tumalo Falls to Happy Valley and back, 8 miles in total and covered in a prior post, was pretty delightful, hordes of mosquitos and a few random sprinkles aside. I can almost think of no better creek walk in Central Oregon that offers as many scenic waterfalls in such a short distance. Although most tourists view the main falls and leave, with a few more going up the hill to the next set of double falls before turning back, almost no tourists make the fantastic and worthwhile push up to Happy Valley.
Ann hurt her back the day before and opted out of the hike, leaving just the three of us to it. I did not realize that an 8-mile hike would be almost more than the two young ones wanted to bite off. I didn't think about it because I walk that far, often. Despite being worn out at the end, the girls seem to be very happy that they pushed their boundaries to see the beauty of this part of the world.
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Setting off and Unsuspecting
This Will be the Longest Hike They've Ever Taken |
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| Photo Op at the Main Tumalo Falls |
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| Further up the Trail |
Ravenous is the word that best describes everyone's mood after coming back down to the parking lot from Happy Valley. I decided to take them to Bangers and Brews on the West Side (Simpson at Century) to try their delicious sausages. For me, the Smoked Hot Andouille is easily the best banger that they make. Lillie got a duck and bacon sausage and Stephanie got a traditional English banger. While we don't often rave about Bend restaurants, especially the higher end ones, Bangers always does a great job and Ann and I love going there.
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| Philly Girls Must Have a Pretzel |
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Smoked Hot Andouille, Spicy Peppers, Raw Onions, Chimichurri
My Usual Order |
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| Standout Fries |
After our hike in the morning, we really needed to fuel up and even though we ate bangers at 3:00 in the afternoon, we were all hungry again at dinner time. Ann had decided some weeks ago that she was going to make her
Doenjang Noodles and she invited Dyce and Rob to join us, to make six for dinner. This was really the first time that the weather has cooperated enough for us to sit out in the courtyard around the fire pit, where we had glasses of txakolina, the great Basque white wine, before dinner.
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| Ann's Delicious Doenjang-Gochujang Perciatelli |
Tuesday June 27: High Desert Museum, Newberry Volcanic Monument, Miyagi
The plan for today was to head south of Bend first to the High Desert Museum to see the outstanding raptor show, the head across US97 to Lava Butte, then south to Paulina Peak, ending the day with a late lunch/early dinner of ramen at Miyagi.
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| No Luck Seeing the Raptor Show |
That was the plan anyway. But, I screwed up. I forgot that it is high tourist season in Bend now and that we'd have to get to the museum well before 10am to secure tickets to the
Raptors of the Desert Sky show, a must-see while in Bend. So, we arrived just after 10 to find a full parking lot and no tickets left for the raptor show. Still we went in so that Lillie could see the otters and they did not fail to amuse us.
Our day is documented in much
more detail in a prior post.
One of the mandatory items on my list for visiting Bend is taking in what it is like to be living on and near the still active Newberry Volcano. Lava, if you have never seen it up close, forms a landscape so sere, alien, and hostile that it seems otherworldly. In fact, the early astronauts came here to Bend in the 1960s to train for their lunar missions.
The Newberry National Volcanic Monument operated by the rangers from the Deschutes National Forest has four major attractions: the Lava Land Visitor Center/Trail of the Molten Land/Lava Butte, Lava River Cave, Lava Cast Forest, and the Newberry Caldera surmounted by Paulina Peak. For a quick day trip, I selected walking the Trail of the Molten Land to see the lava up close and then driving to the top of Paulina Peak, for its gorgeous 360-degree views.
Lava River Cave is closed early week and is on a reservation-only basis the remainder of the week, as are so many of the popular trails in the Deschutes National Forest. The Lava Cast Forest, while worth seeing, is a long way off the beaten path. Lava Butte at the Visitor Center is worth a climb, but only if you're not going to Paulina Peak where the views are better. During the busy season, you have to take an extra-fee shuttle to the top (or walk, as we do).
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| On Trail of Molten Land Below Lava Butte |
The lava field at the base of Lava Butte extends west all the way to the Deschutes River where the molten lava at one time blocked the river. Subsequently, the river broke through the lava dam creating what are now known as Benham Falls, home to some of the nastiest class V kayaking in Oregon. If you have a spare 45 minutes, it is worth the short drive to the falls once you are already past the entrance gate (federal park pass or day-use fee required) to the Visitors Center.
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Main Falls of Benham Falls
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Leaving the Visitor's Center after having seen Benham Falls, we headed south down US97 to the turn-off for Paulina Peak near La Pine. The entrance road climbs steadily over 12 miles up to Paulina Lake, one of two lakes in the Newberry Caldera, the other being East Lake. Just past the parking lot and (rarely occupied) ranger station is a right-turn that leads to the top of the Paulina Peak, some 1600 feet above at nearly 8000 feet. We have only walked to the top in the past; this was our first time driving. I prefer walking.
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From Paulina Peak, the Highest Point on the Caldera Rim
Paulina Lake, left, East Lake right, and the Big Obsidian Flow (right side) |
The view at the top of the peak, which is the highest remaining point on the caldera rim, is 360 degrees with the best viewing to the north and the west, looking over the caldera. The bowl of the caldera contains two lakes, Paulina and East, separated by a cinder cone in the middle. It is along the lakeshores near the cinder cone where the hot springs are located, evidence of the shallow magma field. Also quite visible from this vantage point is the Big Obsidian Flow, looking like a giant poured a bucket of mud on the ground. There is a short trail up into the flow, but it is quite brutally warm in the heat of the day. I was able to show the girls a little obsidian near the peak.
It being late afternoon (3:30) and us having no lunch, the car was full of ravenous folks on the drive back into Bend. We headed for Miyagi in the Box Factory, where time and time again, their spicy miso ramen with pork belly ticks all our boxes. Make sure to ask for an egg in your ramen; the soft egg from the immersion circulator is a small upcharge, but so worth it. Two other mandatory dishes for us: the yuzu Margarita and the pork belly buns. Those buns used to come with a black garlic aioli that was awesome; the current version has a ginger miso dressing, good but not awesome.
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| Miyagi's Damn Fine Yuzu Margarita |
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| Pork Belly Steamed Buns, a Must-Try |
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| Best Thing on the Menu: Spicy Miso Ramen (with added egg) |
On the way back home, we did stop by Crosscut Warming Hut for a final Bend beer before the girls had to head back to North Carolina. After this big of a meal at 4pm and a subsequent beer, we did not need or want any dinner as you might imagine.
Wednesday June 28: McKay Cottage
Wednesday, Lillie and Steph wanted to be at the airport by 11am for their flight to Denver and then on to Charlotte. Steph also wanted to visit the local Harley dealership (how weird is it that they also have Kawasakis in the same showroom??) to pick up a poker chip for her father, who collects them. Each dealership will have a poker chip with their name and location on it. Collecting and swapping them is a thing.
The Harley shop is on the north side of town and doesn't open until 10am. I thought that we would find breakfast somewhere on the north side and then visit the Harley shop on our way out of town north to the airport in Redmond. This was the perfect excuse to try what is reputed to be the best breakfast in town at McKay Cottage, not a minute and a half from the Harley Shop. During their stay, I had only taken the girls to places whose food we knew firsthand is worth having, but I felt fairly comfortable in going to McKay based on their reputation.
Ann and I had never been to McKay Cottage despite urging from many locals. It is something of an institution here and is always jammed with tourists. We got a table inside (the outside tables in the summer are highly coveted) in short order and got our food after about a 20-minute wait.
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| A Bloody a Day Keeps the Doctor Away |
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| Lillie's Stuffed Croissant French Toast |
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| My Carnitas Hash |
Despite its reputation and cachet with the tourists, I don't think I'll ever go back. To be fair, my standards as a chef are very high, but for the prices they charge, I expect good food, well seasoned and well executed. The Bloody Mary was extremely pedestrian and was garnished with lemon slices that should have been thrown out the day before. My hash was flat-out unseasoned and boring with limp potatoes and meager shreds of pork that are the antithesis of a great carnita. Sorry McKay Cottage: I cannot recommend you.
After the stop at the Harley shop, we found ourselves at the airport twenty minutes later just at 11am as the girls requested. Little did they know that they would face one delay after another, first in Bend and then in Denver. Ultimately, United found a flight crew that had sufficient rest to get them to Charlotte around 5am, hours and hours behind schedule.
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