It was the morning of June 20th, and believe it or not, Erich was up relatively early. We got dressed and loaded the car and...after a couple of false starts, got out on the road about 9 A.M. Of course, leaving at that time in the Bay Area on a Tuesday morning was going to land us in---UGH!--rush hour traffic.
From the 580, we took the 13...which was backed up for a long way.
And then we turned off and went through the Caldecott Tunnel.
Once through, we passed a busy BART train on the way.
Then across the Benicia Bridge...
From the bridge, you could see the remains of the Mothball Fleet, ships that had been in storage since World War II. I remember as a little kid (I was born in Concord, lived in Pittsburg and San Jose for several years before moving to Fresno) seeing these often. There were fleets of them...and now there are just a handful. They are being towed off to Texas for dismantling.
Breakfast was at a Starbucks in Vacaville.
Not long after resuming our trip, we encountered our first batch of road construction. Joy...
Lake Shasta was the fullest I have EVER seen it.
And there was also construction there.
As we approached Dunsmuir, the Castle Crags could be seen above us...but I missed the best shot. Drat!
And there was MORE construction.
In Dunsmuir, we stopped at Yaks on the 5. We had discovered Yaks the previous year with Ricki, Ted and Ashley when we made our first stop on our Great Northwest Road Trip and were spending the first night in the Railroad Motel (all of the rooms are converted cabooses). Believe it or not, it was named one of the top 100 restaurants in the country by YELP last year...and it was genuinely GOOD. Their specialty is fancy burgers...but their cinnamon roll things (in a cinnamon whisky sauce) is to die for and I fell in love with their homemade ranch dressing for their french fries. Yowza!
I took over driving after lunch. We turned off the 5 at the town of Weed, which makes a lot of tourist dollars based on its name alone.
As we drove on, we encountered MORE road work and a train...
We finally made it to Bend and our little AirBnB house.
Erich's room
My room
We were exhausted after the drive. Erich's cousin Robin and her wife Skye live in Bend. Skye made dinner for us that first night and we went over there for a relaxing but short evening before dragging our tired selves back to the house and to bed.
The next day, Erich and I had breakfast at the house. A little later, Skye showed up (Robin was working). She took us around town. Downtown Bend is really nice. The Deschutes River nearly surrounds the downtown section and is just gorgeous.
We walked through downtown then back across the river and stopped at Sunriver, a little brewery (of which there are several in town).
Of the various types of beer on the menu, I saw one called "Tiki Club". I, of course, had to try that one.
Skye had errands to run, so she left us to our leisure and we walked back in to town to check out the farmer's market.
We stopped at a market on the way home and I was enamored with some of the crazy-sounding sodas. Ha!
Other products caught my eye, like this one: TIRED OLD ASS overcome exhaustion mineral bath. Ha!
There is a solar eclipse happening in August and already everyone is gearing up for it. These eclipse glasses are an example. Waaaagh! I want to see it.
Later we walked into town and saw this little dam that creates hydroelectric power for the residents.
We were meeting Robin and Skye for dinner at a place called CHI.
We dined on the outside terrace. I had a great view of the river.
I started off with a mojito. After that, I ordered something called a Mr. Chu. To my delight, it came in this swell, tiki-like mug.
I asked the waitress about buying the Mr Fu mug, but it wasn't for sale. That's okay because, as we sat there, I found some for sale on eBay! Ha! I ordered myself one and also sent two to Robin and Skye. I'm sure they thought they were dumb, but it was in remembrance of that evening and they would totally remember that I had given them the mugs. (They're probably sitting in a thrift store even now! Ha!)
Our 2nd day / evening had come to a close. But before the sun would rise again, we'd have a little drama in store for us....and we ended up going to the emergency room at the local hospital!
CHEERS!
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