Our accommodation in Bend is really well located. We’re about 4 km from the centre of town which hardly matters as whole blocks nearby are chockfull of shops providing just about anything we might need. There are lots of take-away, restaurant and coffee shop options, a huge Safeway supermarket, Barnes & Noble bookshop, Costco, a place called Big Lots and so on and so on. Last night we checked out a shop called Goodys – their specialty is chocolates and ice-cream. The signature item is self serve frozen yoghurt (7 or 8 different flavours). You serve yourself and add whatever toppings you want (about 30 to choose from) and then take your concoction to the register. The cost is worked out at 40c per ounce (an ounce is about 30 grams). It seemed like quite a novelty idea and was very popular.
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| Lake Todd |
This morning we set off to follow Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway – the operative words being Lakes and Scenic. The drive took us past Mt Bachelor – the main skiing area about 30 km out of Bend. Some of the lakes were stunningly beautiful – our favourite was Lake Todd and we would have enjoyed staying there all day if there hadn’t been other things to see and do.
On our way back to Bend we stopped at the High Desert Museum and spent about three hours there because it was so interesting. We were particularly impressed with the displays on the history and culture of the native Americans and on the settlement and development of the area by white people. Some raptors and other animals native to the area were housed in outside areas. On otter was one of the highlights for us as we had never seen one of these playful creatures before.
