Our vacation continued in Portland (because it’s important to vacation in your own town) with a visit to Hopscotch, an immersive art experience.
I loved this mural, and would love to have the artist paint a mural on the side of our house. Someday, maybe.
This installation was made of plastic garbage bags, and the lights changed colors making things seem otherworldly.
Here’s a close-up with slightly different colors.
This was my favorite installation. Because a ball pit is a very fun thing, especially when not in a Chuck E Cheese and with fun lighting.
Matt really liked this room, but I did not. You put on a headset that showed you, but from a different perspective. Then you got to walk around and shoot a basket and other fun things while dealing with that perspective.
This installation was a maze of neon.
From there, we went to Clarklewis and had a delicious dinner and many, many people wished us a happy anniversary (and also engaged us in conversation about our wedding.)
In Sisters, the air quality was terrible. Smoke from two forest fires was funneled right into the town. Because of that, we didn’t do any walking back and forth to the downtown area as I did on my last visit. But our very large room was a perfect place to hole up.
On Monday night we saw Blue Beetle at the Sisters Movie House and concluded that while Blue Beetle didn’t want to hurt anyone, he didn’t mind if his family did.
We also did another Exit escape room game, getting out of the labyrinth in just under an hour and a half.
On Tuesday, we stayed inside and played another escape room game, this one called the Deserted Lighthouse. It included four puzzles that you had to assemble in order to solve it, plus other things. I didn’t love it. Putting puzzles together while a timer is ticking isn’t my favorite thing. And we didn’t do very well, I think maybe getting 2 stars out of ten.
From there we drove to downtown Sisters to find food and stopped in at the Open Door to see if they happened to have a table. They had us wait a few minutes because someone was a no-show for their reservation and they wanted to see if they would appear. They did not, and we had a delicious dinner. Thanks, Open Door.
On Wednesday, after eating breakfast and lounging around, we took our timer photo and headed home.
On the way there, we stopped at On Any Sundae, and had a frozen treat. I tried the frozen “lasagna,” which was many layers of delicious fun. Matt got an overstuffed waffle cone. Both were quite good.
On the previous day, we left the Walker Trail Trailhead and headed to Lakeview for some lunch. We heard a squeal. It was intermittent, so at first we ignored it. Eventually we pulled over and had a look. But we know little about cars, so that wasn’t helpful. On we continued to Lakeview where we ate at a Chinese restaurant and headed back to our lodgings. Unfortunately, as we drove through town the squealing was super loud, so much so that people’s heads were turning. We pulled over and again looked at where we thought the source was, our front tire.
A man in a truck pulled over, immediately diagnosed the problem as a rock stuck in the wheel. He first crawled under the car to see if he could work the rock out that way. That didn’t work, so he asked us to pull the car up onto the curb and did another check. No rock. From there, he got a jack out of his truck and asked for our tire iron. That’s the level of car knowledge I have, so we could supply that. He took off the tire, but no dice. Back to the truck he went for more tools and he disassembled the breaks. It was at this point I did feel a prickle of worry that he might not be able to put things back together, but it was late afternoon on Sunday in a small town, so he was probably our best bet.
It turned out the rock was buried as deep as it could be in the workings of the tire. Our good Samaritan found it, reassembled everything, and was on his way. We compensated him for his time because when someone helps two city folk with no car knowledge in a small town, that is a very lucky thing.
We took the rock with us, and here Matt is modeling it for the camera.
So tiny, yet so loud! The rock then joined the other rocks in the driveway of our cabin.
On this day, it had rained all night and into the morning which wasn’t great for stargazing, but made for a cozy night playing board games in the cabin.
From there, we took the very long way to Bend taking Highway 395 past Lake Albert over to Highway 20. On Highway 20, driving became normal again, with much traffic. We stopped at Hampton Station for lunch and found it was overwhelmed with customers and almost out of food. Our sandwich choices were limited, but they were good.
In Bend, we did a Riddle Route and had fun exploring the city that way. I grabbed this picture of a very stripy couple walking while we were on our route.
The air quality in downtown Bend was hazy, but not terrible. But once we got to the north part of the city it was very smoky and then increasingly smoky on our drive to Sisters, where we checked into 5 Pine Lodge and shut ourselves in for the night.
We took a drive to see if we could find the place where hang gliders launched. The dirt roads challenged our Honda Civic, and we ended up pulling over and Matt exploring the last bit by foot. We then looped back to a scenic lookout for a picture.
We then did a short hike on the Walker Trail, going nowhere near the 30 mile length of the trail, but appreciating the scenery.
I liked these dollops of bright red-orange against the greens and browns on the trail.
From there, we went to Lakeview for lunch. On the way, an intermittent screeching began. More on that tomorrow. In the meantime, here is another pretty view of our cabin. While the cabin is darling, we discovered that the screens weren’t tightly fit into the windows and it got a little buggy inside once the sun went down. I’ve set my sights on the Sunrise or Sunset cabins for our next visit.
We’ve been to this viewpoint many times, including the chronicle of this visit in 2014 with one of my favorite picture of Matt. It’s a deep crevasse, that viewpoint, and thus good for Central Oregon Bungee Adventures to set up shop.
It’s not a speedy process, the bungee jump. After getting strapped in there’s the long wait to get the courage to make the jump. The first person we saw jump went relatively quickly, the second one too longer. But she eventually did it.
It turns out the fun part while watching is not the initial jump, but the first bounce back up. Here’s a photo to orient yourself. Take note of where the bridge meets the side of the crevasse before scrolling to the next picture.
The jumpers go all the way down, and then pop! right back up. They tend to have arms and legs flailing as they bounce.
Once all the bouncing stops, they are reeled up so that another jumper can take their place.
“I can’t believe we will be doing that in just one hour!” cried one of three older teenagers who were also watching. We didn’t stay around to see their jump, but I bet they had fun.
The first part of our vacation was exploring the Oregon Outback, a place I really enjoyed. First of all, driving is much more fun when you are the only car in sight for miles and miles. I also really enjoyed the landscape as it is similar to what I grew up with in Boise.
This is the bathhouse that covers the biggest hot springs–fed pool. This picture shows fence rails and that’s where the three outdoor pools are. They are of varying temperatures and we found them to be generally hotter than the main pool.
Here is our cabin, Manzanita. Inside the decor is very eclectic as if it was sourced from various thrift shops. In other words, my kind of place.
Aside from a bed and a kitchen sink and hot plate, there was also a toilet and sink. Super luxury. Here is the glamor shot.
On the first night we played Micro Macro Crime City and had fun staring at the drawing to identify the various crimes that were being committed. This is a fun game that can be played by kids and adults alike. (There were some mature scenarios that are not kid-friendly, but they were clearly marked.)
This bandshell has always been a wonderful part of Julia Davis Park. And now it’s called the Gene Harris Bandshell. Look how great the shadow is!
Apparently, it caught on fire in 2018, and I’m looking at a post-fire restoration. And also, it’s been named for Gene Harris since 2000. I’m a little slow on noticing Boise things now.
The original contract for the bandshell was awarded in April of 1928. The bandshell was designed by the Wayland & Fennel architectural firm and was constructed in a mission revival style with a stucco exterior. Its style was likely inspired by the construction of the Boise Depot in 1925. When the depot was completed, it inspired a flurry of commercial and residential structures in a similar style.
The bandshell was dedicated on Sunday, July 8, 1928 with remarks from former mayor Eugene B. Sherman and Mayor Walter Hansen. The audience enjoyed several solo songs from Mrs. Rosene, several pieces of music played the Boise Male Quartet, and a band program that played about twelve songs with an intermission. A crowd of 2,000 people watched, sitting on the grass, or parked in their automobiles.
And about Gene Harris:
Built in 1928, the band shell was named for famed jazz pianist Gene Harris in 2001. Harris lived and performed in Boise from the 1970s until his death from complications from diabetes in 2000. He also gave his name to the Boise State Jazz Festival, now known as the Gene Harris Jazz Festival
I texted Matt to ask him if he wanted me to grab the full series of the Gilmore Girls since it was right there in a thrift store. He declined. (Why are these not on the shelf in season order???)
I had a delicious lunch at the Big Blue Cafe. They serve ginger garlic potatoes that I couldn’t get enough of. Highly recommended.
I wandered through the Cal Poly Humboldt campus to catch the bus to Trinidad and on the way I found a hobbit hole.
This may have been the most rural bus route I had ever experienced. It dropped me off in the town of Trinidad. I took a short walk through town and took a hike around Trinidad Head
It was sunny and windy.
Part of the hike went through this thicket.
Here’s the town of Trinidad
And some atmospheric pictures.
The lighthouse is still in operation (as, presumably, are these crab pots).
After my hike, I ate at the Seascape Restaurant where I had a really good smoked salmon cheese sandwich and some chowder. While there, I listened to the slightly awkward conversation of four people, one of whom was interviewing for a position in the Art Department at Cal Poly Humboldt. I wonder if he got the job?
Also, I’m pretty sure this was the beach Matt and I visited in 2019, though I never called that beach by name.
