Trip to Bend

On Monday we went to Bend in Central Oregon to visit a couple of days with Larry's Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Gene. They are renting a few months while their home in Mesquite is sweltering away. We were only almost three hours from there here in Albany and they have an extra bedroom, so we threw our stuff in a duffle and trucked over without the trailer.

This first picture is how the forests look a few years after a forest fire...this was along highway 20 over the Santiam Pass.

The duplex that A&U found in Bend was really nice, big front porch that we spent a lot of time on enjoy the breezes (when they happened along), fully furnished with all the "stuff" you need to get by with, beautifully built with attention to detail and had the two bedrooms upstairs which meant we got our workout going up and down them.

It was in a great location, we could walk to the downtown area...which was only a few blocks away...restaurants, coffee, stores, library, post office and to the beautiful, large park on the Deschutes River which winds through Bend. A few blocks the other direction was to the Mill which was another area with shopping. Bend has grown, its population is over 75,000 people now, but everyone is friendly and has the most considerate drivers (over all) we have ever seen. The lifestyle there is very active, and people are very tan and fit looking. We enjoyed our visit a lot.

Auntie fed us well as always and Uncle walked us all over the place...Thanks you guys!

The Peonies were in one of the gorgeous yards that we saw on our daily walk.