Bend

My sister is very good at making the effort at seeing everyone when she comes to town. Better than me, she arranges to visit my brother and family in Bend. I probably wouldn't see them half as much if she didn't arrange these family gatherings. This trip was driving to see the family for dinner on Wednesday, river raft on Thursday then back home on Friday.

We stopped at the top of Mt Hood to meet at the adventure park, as some of us were coming from different locations and at different time commitments. Mt Hood allowed for long and short hang outs. My boys were able to eat our packed picnic lunch of Turkey and cheese sandwiches. Wander the park and look at the beautiful scenery while we waited for everyone else to join us.

My sister had car troubles. Radiator fluid  drained out onto the parking lot asphalt while we chatted at the rendezvous site, which put a damper on her adventure, with the stress of whether the car would make it the whole way.

She and her husband picked up a bottle of anti freeze to pour in as needed. We arranged for the children all to ride in various other cars. My taking some and some going in the grandparent's care, so if the car she was driving did break down she wouldn't have to deal with children on top of everything else. It is a lot easier to hang out with a broken car if you don't have to entertain children.

The car made it to Bend where they dropped it at a mechanic for repair. A new radiator and $600 later the car was good for another few years of service to  the family.

Wednesday night we had dinner with the family. My lovely sister in law cooked up a fettuccine pasta with sausages, and a caprice salad for dinner. The perfect dish for a large hungry crowd. We stayed late but my brother had to work the next day so eventually we all did have to head back to our hotel nearby.

In the morning I sent one of the boys to the front desk for ibuprofen so I could function for the day. I ended up skipping breakfast. Trev brought me up a little plate of food to nibble on once I felt functional enough.

We piled into the car around 11:00am to head to our meeting place for rafting. The facility had a big school bus to drive all the participants to the river, only 10 minutes away. Six rafts were heading out at the same time. Our family all would fit in one. There were nine of us going.

The raft trip was a two hour excursion down the Deschutes River. We had all done it before but it is a fun event, worth repeating. Trevor's eighth birthday was the last time we had done this rafting event. We had rafted the Rogue river out of Ashland, the last time. This year because of forest fires the rogue river was closed at this time, so we were lucky we had chosen Bend as our destination.

This rafting trip has only one serious rapid in the whole trip. Several small rapids to keep the excitement going and prepare you for the biggest one. Enough to get your heart rate going without killing yourself. I didn't have to paddle the first section, but one of my nephews decided he wanted to be at the front of the boat going through the rapids where the water splashes up and the thrill of being first into the fray is quite exciting. He passed his paddle to me and I had to get to work.

 I have a big bruise on my thigh where I smacked myself with the T head of the paddle while the boat was tossed around going through the hard part.

The guide, Travis, was terrific. In one of the calm stretches, he had all the young teens sit up on the side of the raft on the pontoon, wrap their arms and legs around each other until they were tangled then gave a push to the center child and they all went into the water together. Laughing uproariously. Riley of course saw what was coming and opted out. The guide noticed the one dry smart child. He convinced Riley to play the game also. Riley very reluctantly allowed himself to be tossed overboard in good spirits.

When we went to pull Trevor back into the raft, he laughingly said "hold on, I am using the bathroom" . It took two to pull Trevor on board. My youngest nephew C, at age six, was not so enamored with the whole adventure. He was quite frightened by the tenseness of the   rapids. He cried, but it quickly passed as the children jumped into the cool water to play in the calm afterwards.



My sister had to head back  after rafting as the children's  plane left for the East in the morning Friday. It would be the first time the boys flew alone.  I knew I didn't want to do the drive back after rafting so arranged to stay one more night at the hotel.

There was a music festival in the park walking distance from the hotel. Fair food for dinner. Though being Bend it was no ordinary fair food. These vendors were high end fancy restaurants with amazing foods to taste.. Ice cream wasn't just ordinary ice cream, it was home made gelatoe  in fancy flavors. The pizza stand had a brick oven right there cooking every pizza fresh.

I ordered Thai food, which was delightfully prepared, and shared my meal with Trevor so we could all try different options. The cousins went to the bouncy house for a frolic while the grown ups had one last night chatting and just enjoying living the beautiful summer night in the park with good loving family.

I walked back to my brother's home just off the park for an evening of conversation and good company which is rare to come by when we live over 4 hours from each other. I have to say Bend is a wonderful community. He and his wife have a home very centrally located. biking distance to everything. Their neighbors all know each other and say " hello" as they take their evening strolls.  My brother spent over an hour watering his garden and showing me his plantings. I was impressed. I had had no idea he was such a green thumb. He garden is loved. It makes me motivated to put more into my still un landscaped back yard.

Friday, The last day of our wonderful adventure in sports paradise, the cousins came over to have breakfast and swim in the hotel pool for our last hours.

We eventually had to leave as the dog was waiting to be picked up from the sitter.  .