Taking the High Road, Part VI: Oh Oregon

We’d been anticipating our visit to Thad and Kristin’s terrestrial abode in Bend, Oregon, since, well, since they bought it, and since we saw them in Michigan earlier in the summer. They enthusiastically espoused the glories of all the breweries (about 22 of them – this interested Rand) and the pretzels (this interested me), vegetarian restaurants (yaaasssss!), and all of the outdoor recreation opportunities they’d discovered since taking possession of their home and traipsing around the neighborhood. So, after making the rounds in the northern part of the PNW, we packed up the Civic and hit the rainy road heading south.

We’re going to let the photos and video (with some repeat stills – sorry) do most of the talking for us on this post, but the most important thing to know is how much we’ve missed these two people, Thad and Kristin. Since our separation on the azure coastal waters of Mexico, we’ve managed to stay as close as can be expected when people are geographically separated by thousands of miles. Thank goodness for cell phones and social media, honestly. But it doesn’t replace them as euchre partners in the flesh – dang, do we miss playing euchre with them! We are so happy and feel so lucky to be within their sphere. Thanks, T/K, for absolutely everything. Can’t wait to visit again in the very near future!

Officially taking our leave of the PNW, we did a quick driving tour through Crater Lake NP, and eventually vanished into the smoke-filled basin south of Susanville, CA, as we made our way to Lake Tahoe.