Breakfast in Bend: maybe not as cozy as breakfast in bed, but a much better view! We found a picnic table along the Deschutes River and enjoyed a feast of coffee, yogurt, cereal and fruit. Bend was ripe with wildflowers...and dogs. They were everywhere! We found it more fun to focus our efforts on pictures of the flowers, sorry dog lovers.
Bend is home to the Best Brewery Tour: Sorry Sierra Nevada, you have a lot to learn from the Deschutes Brewery.
Neither of us are beer aficionados like some of our friends, but we both really enjoyed this tour. Sarah's portrayal of the taste of beer: "It's like the taste you get when you brush your teeth and then drink orange juice, mixed with a little urine." Aaron also used to not enjoy the taste of beer, but his taste buds have been converted from learning more about the families of beer. Both beer and coffee have that effect. But, on to the tour! They start you off with a free tasting flight, which equals a full beer when all is said and done! (Well it's a full beer if the person you're with is not a fan of beer and gives you all of their tastes = Happy Aaron). Then, you go on a jam-packed informational tour about beer: the history, the laws, the ingredients, the process used while looking at all the equipment. We now know what IPA stands for and why it was named such. Curious? Well you'll have to take the tour yourself! Or just click this. The only disappointment was the bottling and boxing machines were off the day we took the tour. Though still pretty cool to see them turned off. Then the tour ended with a gallery of the Christmas blend label art from all the past years. All done by local Bend artist. Aaron is already planning to move to Bend and enter next year's contest.
Question: What to you get when you cross a volcanic eruption with rain? Answer: CRATER LAKE!
Your word for the day: Caldera. This is the name for the crater that is formed after a volcanic explosion or collapse of a volcanic cone.
Glad we weren't there 7000+ years ago when this happened! But we were very glad to be there today to experience the beautiful remains! It's the highest lake in the US and it's also the cleanest. There are no rivers feeding into or out of it so it's filled by snow melt and rain water only...so clean!
One word to sum up our feelings about it: BLUE! It was the deepest, bluest blue we've ever seen, sorry Tahoe. We started they day by climbing Mt. Scott, the highest point around the crater. Boy what views we had! That made us nice and warm so we then hiked down to the water and went for a swim! The water was unreal in how blue it was. If we hadn't seen it, we couldn't have imagined it. The best was going under water and opening our eyes to look around. Guess what we saw....BLUE!
We ended the day by doing something neither of us had done in over 15 years...used a payphone! Without cell signal, it was our only way to call Annalisa and wish her a Happy 30th Birthday!!! So glad I have the coolest, funniest sister in the world! Love you, Anno! Happy Birthday!
Bend is home to the Best Brewery Tour: Sorry Sierra Nevada, you have a lot to learn from the Deschutes Brewery. 
Neither of us are beer aficionados like some of our friends, but we both really enjoyed this tour. Sarah's portrayal of the taste of beer: "It's like the taste you get when you brush your teeth and then drink orange juice, mixed with a little urine." Aaron also used to not enjoy the taste of beer, but his taste buds have been converted from learning more about the families of beer. Both beer and coffee have that effect. But, on to the tour!
They start you off with a free tasting flight, which equals a full beer when all is said and done! (Well it's a full beer if the person you're with is not a fan of beer and gives you all of their tastes = Happy Aaron). Then, you go on a jam-packed informational tour about beer: the history, the laws, the ingredients, the process used while looking at all the equipment. We now know what IPA stands for and why it was named such. Curious? Well you'll have to take the tour yourself! Or just click this. The only disappointment was the bottling and boxing machines were off the day we took the tour. Though still pretty cool to see them turned off. Then the tour ended with a gallery of the Christmas blend label art from all the past years. All done by local Bend artist. Aaron is already planning to move to Bend and enter next year's contest.
