We drove up to Bend last weekend to visit with some good friends from college. It’s a long drive from Napa, but splitting it up into two parts each way and spending a night in Shasta made it much more palatable for both us and Rory. Add in a few stops along the way to stretch the legs and he was mostly a happy passenger!

We got in midday Saturday, earlier than the rest of the group, and met up with Bend locals Kincaid and Ellie for excellent sandwiches at Valentines Deli and a short hike down by the Deschutes river. Thunderclouds loomed but we avoided getting rained on (foreshadowing…?)

Saturday was our only full day with the whole group so we packed it with activities. We failed to secure any hard-to-get permits (gone in 15 seconds from opening in the morning - is everyone using bots these days?) so we loaded up to hike up Tumalo mountain. All uphill but the payoff was worth it: views of every mountain in the Bend skyline. Broken top is my favorite!


After the hike we drove straight to the Spark’s lake day use area for a lazy couple of hours on the waterside. Rory is a big fan of throwing rocks in the water and climbing on top of every rock he can.


On Saturday evening we cooked a marvelous meal at the house: Tri-tip steak, a corn-peach-burrata salad, pesto pasta, and good red wine. We were missing dessert, though, so ventured out on our bikes to procure some ice cream.

The Sunriver bike trails are in my opinion the single best reason to stay there. Our evening ride was magical, one of the highlights of the trip!


Sunday was slower as we had to be out of the house by 11am. We rode around some more and headed up to Bend for some food and shopping in downtown. We wandered and friends departed one-by-one until it was time for us to hit the road as well.
The dark skies were looming again as we took Rory to a park, and mad dash back to the cars led to us saying hasty goodbyes to narrowly avoid a downpour. We started down the road to a gas station, a fortunate decision as the rain turned into the most intense hail storm I’ve ever been in. We sheltered at a gas station for 15 minutes before it let up and we started our drive down to Shasta.
Too short of a trip, but great to see old friends and visit Bend. I love the area and we’ll certainly do a longer trip to Sunriver in the future.