Having spent a few months on the west side of the Cascades, we decided it was worth our time to travel over to the east side and see what all the hype was about. Sisters and Bend were both rather trendy spots in Oregon being near the Cascades but having much better weather than we experienced on west side. It had been a trying couple of months as our new positions required a huge portion of our time and energy. What was especially difficult is just how exhausted we got just managing our jobs, daycare, and living in a new place. A trip over the Cascades was worth while. Jacqueline had a friend that she knew in Bend, so we drove through Sisters and made a plan to meet up with her at Newberry Volcanic National Monument.
It was only a couple of hours to drive there and soon after we arrived, her friend Shimiko whom she knew from growing up in Midland arrived. There was a paved trail that left from the visitor center up into the lava fields. This would have to be our path today as she had a stroller to move her daughter who was 1 year old just like Conrad. Her son had plenty of energy, but it was nice for our kids to have other kids near their age to hang out with on a hike. The volcanoes were interesting as this was once again a fairly recent lava flow, so you could really see how it had changed the landscape. There was a beautiful cinder cone, but we were not destined to make it there. We completed our hike walking to the end of the paved path.
We spent much of the evening hanging out with her and her husband before departing for our own family dinner. We stayed at this not so exciting hotel, but Jacqueline had made the arrangements using Expedia when the hotel was actually out of rooms. They had no choice but to put us up in one of their suites for the night. We did not actually need it or use it too much, but it was nice to have a little more space. The next day we headed out again with her friend Shimiko. We met her at there rental house as they were jumping in on the building craze and building a house in Bend. We decided to head up to the mountains for a hike. The plan didn't go so well, though, as it was unexpectedly cool. Eventually it began snowing on us, so we bagged that idea and instead went back down to the trails around the Deschutes River. We found our way to the Big Eddy Trailhead. This was a popular spot around the Deschutes for hikers and kayakers. The water looked a bit too rough for me to consider kayaking, but there were plenty of people in the water including a group of guys that seemed to want to take a plunge down this crazy waterfall. We watched them for a while and I realized how not tough that I am compared to these hearty souls.
The cold was so unexpected that we had to borrow a jacket from Shimiko for Conrad. We walked for a bit enjoying the river and the scenery. As we were about to leave, we ran into Howard and his wife Dinah from Zion that we had worked with. We chatted with them for a while, but I thought it was so funny to meet up with people that we had known previously from somewhere very far away. They had retired in Bend and it was very nice to see a familiar face. We enjoyed our short walk along the river, but unfortunately work called us back the next week. We said adieu, but knew that we would be back to the east side to explore more of what the dry side of the Cascades had to offer.
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