One of my first stops along my road trip was in Bend, Oregon for the sole purpose of visiting my dad. Bend is gorgeous in the summer so we made grand plans to paddle board the Deschutes River the Saturday I would be there. Alas, fate was against us and instead of a bright, hot summer day we were greeted with a soggy, overcast sky.
Fear not! Bend is a recreation friendly city with hiking, caves, lakes, forests, and biking available. Not to mention amazing food and great shopping! Rather than throw in the towel and skip getting outside to play at all we did what we do best - went for a drive.
I love taking purposeless drives with people because it's a great opportunity to talk and catch up which are two things my dad and I really needed the chance to do. I hadn't seen my dad in over two years, so needless to say, it's been long overdue!
We hopped in his truck and headed out past Mount Bachelor to go lake hopping. Our first stops were Paulina Lake and East Lake. Both were absolutely gorgeous and because the weather was poor we were able to have the beaches relatively to ourselves. There is a ton of camping in this area which made me start to feel the itch to buy a tent! (Which I did at the end of this trip!)
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| Shhhhhh, don't tell them I told you! |
Before the rain clouds could release their burden we hopped back in the truck and headed to Cultus Lake for lunch. There is a great campground there that included a little grocery store and diner. The view from our table was pretty amazing.
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| A brief bit of sunshine before the clouds rolled back in |
I'm glad my dad was driving because I was lost within miles, but he knew exactly where he was going and where all the pretty stops were.
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| Devil's Lake |
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| Mount Bachelor |
It was the perfect way to spend the day and I'm grateful now that the weather didn't want to cooperate with our original plans. This was a MUCH better way to spend our time together.
Camping, anyone?
