Day 47 - Just Around the Bend

Bend has turned out to be a great area to tour and a very relaxing time for us. We are taking it slow in the mornings and then heading out for part of the day and getting back earlier than usual.

Today we headed into downtown Bend. Bend’s population is 91,000 and growing. Lots of new roads and houses and lots of young people, many with interesting garb. Kind of a bohemian counter culture look. Marijuana is legal here even for recreational use. That could explain this. It is much larger than we expected. There are over 100 restaurants many of them attached to a brewery. That is where we went today for lunch. Deschutes Brewery is named after the river the runs through Bend. We enjoyed a pizza with roasted roma tomatoes, spinach, parmesan, mozzarella, and hazelnuts on a basil pesto base along with a Greek chopped salad with romaine, marinated tomatoes, artichoke hearts, feta cheese, cucumbers, pickled onions, olives and garlic-herb vinaigrette. Both were delicious. We forgot to take a picture. We were so hungry and ate so fast! Tim had a beer - Pacific Wonderland IPA.

We walked around town and then headed back to get ready to leave in the morning. We begin our trip to the Rocky Mountains which will take 4 days to get there.