Day 6 - Beer City USA (aka Bend, OR)

Little did we know when we arrived in Bend that they have more breweries per capita than any other city.  Since we had already visited four breweries in as many days, we figured we might as well keep the trend going.  Before hitting the breweries however we took a recommendation from our host and set out for the Cascades Lake Highway.

Well actually, first we hunkered down at La Magie Bakery and Cafe to grab a bite and give me a few hours to do some work.

Breakfast sandwiches extraordinaire

After a buttery breakfast we headed out. Even though it was our "off" driving day, we couldn't resist the temptation of driving through lava fields and seeing cascade lakes.  We drove west out of town and it wasn't too long before we were blown away by an up close and personal view of Mt. Bachelor.

 We made our first stop at Devil's Lake.  The turquoise blue of the water was amazing!

Squirrelly was impressed!

Next stop was Elk's Lake.

 We soon learned that the roads in this area must have changed in the last few years because the 2004 guide book we had kept leading us astray.  For instance, Fall River Falls which told us to park by the ranger station to view where two rivers gush forth on either side to create a fall was more like this:

Beautiful no doubt, but not necessarily what I would call "gushing"

About 30 miles more of incredible mountains, lakes and scenery and we had had our fill of nature for the day so we switched gears to another passion of ours, beer.  We were hoping to catch a tour at the Deschutes Brewery and made it back just in time for the last tour of the day.  We got some free samples of beer, learned about their brewing process and bought some gear in the gift shop (see tomorrow's post for more photos of our purchases...)

River Ale has quickly become our new favorite summer beer!

Is that an open chair?  I think Dan may have found his dream job.

Feeling inspired, we picked up some River Ale and headed to the Deschutes River to savor a beer at the source.

And because we still hadn't had enough of the Bend breweries, we stopped at GoodLife Brewing, which was recommended by Dan's friend and split a taster.  Then hit up 10 Barrel Brewing Company for some dinner and to catch Game 6 of the NBA Finals. (Side note, Dan was a little angry at the Heat's performance and we ended up leaving with under a minute on the clock.  To our surprise the game went into OT and we caught the last seconds back in our room!)

If you're paying attention, yes this is the 3rd picture of pizza I have posted...definitely our favorite food!

I have to say that after spending a short day and a half in Bend, I am thoroughly impressed.  It's the type of town I could see myself living in and Dan and I have already started planning things to do there when we go back!

-Lauren