remember your wellies

after being in bend for a full week (eek!), we are finally settling in. we had a small housing mishap, to say the least, but through a series of blessings from God, we have a home, an awesome home (in my view, that means old, full of character, and a garden in back).

if you haven’t heard, bend is the fit, active, outdoorsy type person’s dream. it’s an odd place here when you really think of it, but it’s a beautiful place full of exploration, outdoor sports, rivers, good breweries, and awesome coffee/smoothie shops.

as we’ve been settling, we’ve certainly been exploring and these are a few of my favorite things thus far.

trails.

we have an insane amount of trails within walking distance of our house. this means that evening walks, morning runs, and sometimes conference calls are done with this amazing scenery right out our back door.

bike lanes for all.

the folks of bend support biking which is awesome. on the days that chris is working, my bike is my form of transportation so it is very fortunate that it is easy to ride around here. the highway even has bike lanes. another nice thing is that nothing is really more than 4 miles away so a quick bike is always an option.

my passport.

as we were packing up in grand rapids, i could not find my passport anywhere. my dear parents spent a lot of time searching high and low. eventually we just left and figured we would find it on the way. sure enough, chris found it in the tool box yesterday. what? who puts their passport in a tool box??

lakes, waterfalls, and hot springs!

there are a ton of spots with all three things mentioned above. this means that taking a dip in the lake is only a short drive into the mountains. want to dip in the hot springs? easy. i’ve also learned that clothing is optional at most of these places. this can be great or not so great depending on your perspective. also, the springs are a bit “dig your own spring” so fortunately we met folks who were prepared with shovels to make our experience even more great.

crux fermentation project

as i’ve said before, there are a lot of breweries here. we’ve visited a couple which are okay, but crux fermentation project is by far the best we’ve found. their beer is great, the view is incredible. we showed up there the other night around 7:45 and realized that their happy hour hinges around the sunset. yep – 1/2 before and a 1/2 hour after sunset you save $$ and get a view. so sweet.

we are so blessed to have our first travel assignment be in such a beautiful place. this helps with the transition from established folks to new, transient, “just passing through” folks.