Monday, July 12, 2010

Wow…so journaling online is not always the easiest way to go when you are on the road, in and out of national parks for several days at a time, and staying with friends. I am WAY behind, so I will just catch up as I have time.

Oh Baby!

After leaving the Redwood National Park area of California, our next goal was to see our wonderful friends Amanda and Kyle and their sweet, sweet baby Vincent. They were actually on family vacation for the week so we took our time meandering toward Bend, Oregon. Along the way we stopped at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon just because it looked and sounded interesting. Although it was a really beautiful place, things were kind of closing up as we got there and their camp ground was already full, so we took a few pictures, checked out the gift shop and were on our way again.

We decided that rather than looking for another camp site along the way, we would just drive directly to Bend and crash at Kyle and Amanda’s house even though they would not arrive until the next day. They told us where the key was and told us to make ourselves at home in exchange for watering some plants and feeding the cat. We thought that was a pretty sweet deal, so we got to there place on Friday and just relaxed. We watched a little TV for the first time this summer and made friends with Leaky, the drooling cat. On Saturday we hung around Bend for the day and got groceries so that we could make dinner for Kyle and Amanda (Vincent is still a little young for steak) when they arrived home. It was so fun to see them and to meet their first baby. It was plain to see that Vin loved his auntie Laura very much!

After some much needed rest…we got up Sunday at a leisurely time and then spent the day meeting some of Amanda and Kyle’s Bend friends and went to church with them. Monday, Jeremy and Kyle and two other friends from church went out mountain biking near Mt. Bachelor. They spent the day riding up and down 20 miles of mountain trails while Amanda and I and Vin took a walk on the river and had smoothies for our lunch. It was so fun to catch up. Unfortunately, Kyle had to go back to work on Tuesday, so we were planning to leave Tues. morning. Since Kyle was going to be gone for two days for work, we decided to stay until Wed. morning instead so that Amanda and Vincent didn’t have to be home alone for two nights. Tuesday, Amanda showed us all around down-town Bend…a really fun little city and we ate lunch at this amazing little Indian restaurant. On Wednesday morning, we said our goodbyes to Amanda and Vincent and got back in the van.