Gobble Gobble!

Ever since moving to the Pacific Northwest, we've heard great things about Bend and it's been on our list of places to go explore. It's a bit of a trek to get there though - it's about 6 hours without any traffic or snowy/icy road conditions. Because it's more than just a weekend trip, we hadn't found a good time to go until now. We figured we'd make the most of my "vacation" and go someplace "far" for Thanksgiving this year. Luckily for us, Grammie and Grandpa were up to driving up from LA to meet us there. 

We made good time on our way out. We drove straight through to Portland and decided to make a stop at the Children's Museum so Evie can get the wiggles out, we can grab lunch, and I could feed Nora since I'm still breastfeeding. The museum was a mixed bag - it was super crowded so some of the areas inside were very noisy and cramped. We had fun exploring outside though. 

Climbing tree for our little monkey.

There were these mega large structures made entirely of branches. Cool!

Don't let that smile fool you. Baby girl cried most of the 2nd half of the trip!

The drive was pretty uneventful. We went through Mt Hood and it was easy breezy. Evie was a champ and did great the entire ride - singing, reading, talking and napping. Nora, on the other hand, hates her car seat! She slept for the first leg to Portland, but then pretty much cried for the last hour until we got to Bend.

In Bend, we rented a cute little house only a few blocks from downtown. The nice thing was it was right next to Drake Park so it was a pleasant stroll into town, along the river. It reminded me a lot of Greenlake, actually, because of the older homes boarding the park along the water. We made it a point to walk to town every morning to grab a cup of coffee and explore.

Beautiful weather for a stroll! Bend gets 300+ days of sunshine.

Lots of fall foliage in the park.

Bend is known for all their craft breweries. There were something like 10 craft breweries in the downtown area! If Scott had more time, he would definitely have taste tested at each one. We didn't have time to do that, but we did at least try 10 Barrel and Crux.

At 10 Barrel. We had to see what the hype about this place was, since it was just bought by Budweiser.

The other thing Bend is known for is all their outdoor activities. Because they get so much sunshine, you can do things like hike, cycle, mountain bike, raft and ski. We were hoping for some snow but alas, we didn't get any. It was, however, very chilly! It rained on us for a few days, it everything iced over.

Evie was SO excited to play with the leftover snow from a few weeks ago.

We made a snowman!

We tried to go out to Tumalo Falls for a hike, but it was way too icy to go out. I braved the weather for about 5 minutes to take pictures to show you evidence of how cold it was out!

You can hike to the top of the falls, but we didn't do that!

See how icy the viewing platform is?!

All the ice in the parking lot! 

For Thanksgiving dinner, we had a yummy feast of turkey, two cranberry sauces, cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes, green beans and pumpkin and pecan pie. Yeah, it was a lot of food for the 4 and a half of us!

Nora's first turkey dinner!

Gobble Gobble!

I could not get a decent picture with everyone looking! 

The drive back on Saturday was pretty brutal because it snowed over the pass which slowed us down. Evie LOVED watching it snow though, and Nora slept through all of it. We did a fun pit stop in Portland for lunch and book shopping at Powell's.

All in all, we had a good time in Bend! We agreed that we wouldn't mind going back when it's warmer out or when it's really snowy to take better advantage of all that area has to offer. If we lived in Portland, we'd be there all the time I'm sure!