Bend, Oregon

After Beverly Beach, Oregon, we headed east and stopped at daughter Season's home for one night. Season made us a great meatloaf dinner, and we got to see SIL Lee and grandsons Owen and Connor one last time.  And we used their laundry:)

Then we headed for Bend. We've been there before, but have always camped outside of town.This time we stayed at the Scandia RV Park just two and a half miles from downtown and it gave us a different perspective. We're already thinking about how could work a month-long stay in Bend into future plans.

We've got to consider our dogs when we travel and Bend has eight dog parks. I'm not aware of a another city that size (about 80,000) with so many dog parks -- most of them off leash and big. 

Second, the Bend area has lots of potential kayaking. We didn't have time to kayak this go around. In fact, with the exception of one paddle Jim did at Detroit Lake, our boats have remained perched on our tow car. (At least it makes the car easy to find in a parking lot.) We'd love to get the boats in the water in Bend.

Third, Jim loves craft beer. Bend has 22 local breweries and there are another half dozen nearby. We went to just one this trip brew pub this trip.

Fourth, we like to hike. There is plenty of that near Bend, plus could get in a couple of miles just walking around the dog parks.

Bend looks like it's going through growing pains. Three out of four Bend residents moved there within the last 25 years. With today's mobile world maybe that's not terribly unusual -- but traffic was heavy on the main streets, and I was told housing prices are high.

Still -- we'd like to spend more time there to see if we can add Bend to our list of favorite cities.

Jim at Silver Moon Brewery. Great beer, but boy was it noisy.  The restaurant was busy but not packed, so it must be an acoustics issue.

Lunch on day 2 in Bend: Season and Lee have a huge garden at their home in Stayton.  Season has been canning the harvest and graced us with three jars of dill pickles.  Jim has already used up nearly two of them via turkey, cheese and pickle sandwiches.

The dogs at Pine Nursery dog park, which was recommended to us by a poodle owner at another dog park near the Deschutes River. We went to four of Bend's dog parks and liked them all but this was probably our favorite because it was so big: 18 fenced acres. Our dogs had a great time running over rocks, around pine trees, and playing with other dogs in the park's grassy field.