Q's Adventures: Central Oregon

Just had my summer vacation trip with my family. We spent a week in beautiful Central Oregon! Sunriver has been a favorite vacation destination of my family's for, well, as long as I've been alive. It's just a stunning area, east of the Cascades, the edge of the high desert. Love it there. I was there from Saturday the 7th through Sunday the 15th. After that, my mom, dad, and grandma continued on to spend a few more days in the Oregon wine country.

 Anyways, time to recap my part of the trip, which I thoroughly enjoyed! Saturday was pretty much just a travel day. It's like a 9 hour drive up there, so I settled in for the long haul. The drive may be long, but it does, at least, have some scenery. My best picture was probably one I actually grabbed from my phone, from the car, through the window, while going 70ish mph.  Mt. Shasta is pretty damn gorgeous...

We ended up getting into Sunriver around 4, which is a nice time to get in.  We were able to unpack, get some shopping done, and settle in for the evening for cocktails and dinner!  Early to bed and early to rise was kind of my motto this vacation, so I headed off to bed and woke up Sunday refreshed and ready to be active!

Sunday morning my dad and I went for a run around Sunriver.  Unfortunately, a breakdown in communication led to us getting separated, me getting slightly lost, and running 7 miles instead of 4.  That was somewhat tiring, but whatever.  The middle part of the day was low key...breakfast, lunch, some shopping around.  Then, that afternoon, my dad and I went for a bike ride around Sunriver.  That was pretty cool.  We first rode out to the river...

As you can see down there, just a little blood on my leg.  Got a stick that popped up into my leg.  My first riding injury!  Woo!  The injuries didn't end there, though.  As we were riding back, a thunderstorm rolled in.  That was actually pretty cool (I'm a sucker for Thunderstorms).  But we ended up getting caught in a pretty ridiculous hailstorm.  The hail was actually big enough that we needed to seek shelter.

That's some pretty big hail.  We actually decided to seek shelter because a few of them got me in the leg and did this...

Just some scrapes, but man, kind of wild, right?  I'd never been around hail I had to actively hide from!  We rode on back home when the hail subsided (we weren't far), and got back in time for cocktails and dinner!

Monday was sightseeing day!  The Central Oregon area is pretty interesting and gorgeous.  Our first stop was the High Desert Museum.  It's kind of a history of the area and also a wildlife sanctuary for some local species.  We saw porcupines, eagles, a lynx, a bobcat...and a BADGERBADGERBADGERBADGERBADGERBADGERBADGERBADGERBADGERBADGERBADGERBADGER MUSHROOM MUSHROOM!



ok...sorry.  But there was a badger!

After the high desert museum, we headed out to Lava Lands Visitors Center.  The visitors center is cool, shows the volcanic history of the area.  The real highlight, though, is driving to the top of Lava Butte.  Lava Butte is a butte in the area that provides just some gorgeous views of the area...the lava flows and the surrounding cascade mountains!

Pretty cool, right?  The lava and the mountains...I love it!  After this we dropped mom and grandma at the house, my dad and I went and hiked the lava river cave.  This is a lava tube created by an ancient lava flow.  It's about a mile long...and kinda cold!  It stays at a constant 42 degrees.  Its really really cool.

After this it was home for cocktails and dinner (notice a theme for our evenings!).  Headed to bed early and got up Tuesday morning at 6.  The goal was to run the 1.25 miles to the gym, work out for 45 minutes, and run the 1.25 miles home.  And that's just what I did.  It was actually a really pleasant way to start my day!  Then it was of to the golf course for 9 holes of golf.  We played Quail Run in La Pine.  I've been golfing terribly lately, which continued this day, but it was a nice course.

After golf we went home and had lunch.  Then my dad and I went on a pretty epic bike ride.  We rode out to the river, and then caught a forest service road, and up up up we went.  We didn't really know where we were going...but we just trusted our epic senses of direction.  After going up for a while, we caught a gravel road!  And we took it mostly down (with some small ups), and it ended up hitting the Cascade Lakes Highway a few miles out of Sunriver.  We rode down the highway back to Sunriver, and rode out to Crosswater golf course to get some more scenery pictures.

We then rode back through Sunriver.  One last picture from the ride that I really liked...this is looking back towards Lava Butte over near the stables.

I liked it.  Anyways, after the bike ride it was home, and then dinner out at a restaurant!  We went out to the marina to a restaurant called Hola!  It was Peruvian and Mexican food...and was actually quite delicious.  I got some amazing enchiladas and a very very good mango vanilla margarita.  Pretty awesome!

Wednesday was white water rafting day.  We had a morning trip through Big Eddy!  No pictures, though.  I mean, that's not really a good place for cameras.  My dad and I were up front, though.  And we mostly carried the raft through the rapids (well, us and our guide).  Our rowing was pretty epic.  The float was just over an hour.  Not a bad little trip.  Grandma stayed home for the rafting, but we went home for lunch and met up with her.  Then we headed over the Meadows golf course and played their very fun putting course!

And guess who won?  Oh yeah, this guy right here!  I may golf like shit, but I putt like a champ!  After that it was home for cocktails and dinner!  Woo!

Thursday my dad and I planned to go mountain biking...so we woke up, had breakfast, and off we went!  This time we had a clear goal in mind...Benham falls.  The trail up to Benham was single track and pretty rocky.  I actually ate shit once, and bailed from the bike a few other times early.  Tough riding.  But we made it, and it was pretty awesome!

Good spot for pictures!

After getting here, we decided to continue on the road and try for Dillon Falls another few miles down the river.  It was very pretty riding, and the second falls was just as pretty as the first!

I decided I should get an up close view of the river...

This seemed like a good stopping point, so we found a spot overlooking the pools at the end of the falls to stop, take a break, eat an energy bar, and recharge a bit before turning around and heading back.  Back, it turns out, was mostly uphill, so the break was good.  And provided a very pretty view!

We made it home, showered, ate a little lunch, and then my dad and I hit the driving range that afternoon.  After hacking around a bit, it was home for cocktails, then off to Bend for our second and final dinner out...at Brickhouse Steak and Seafood.  Was actually really disappointed in this one.  The crab cakes were bland, and my ahi was poor.  To top it all off, the service was slow and our waiter tried to make up lies about why. Sigh.  Ah well...can't win em all!  After that it was home and to bed!  I was pretty tired after that bike ride!

Friday brought our second and final golfing outing of the vacation, 18 holes at the gorgeous Sunriver Meadows golf course.

That's mom taking a shot.  But see what I mean about gorgeous!  My golfing was predictably terrible.  But, the highlight of the day was my epic new orange shirt!

I think I'm in love!  And yes, my shot in that shot did go left, just as it appears to be doing.  But not too bad, and I still bogeyed the hole!  A few more pictures of the golfing outing are necessary.  First, my dad pitching up onto the green.  He had an epic day, going 39-41 for an 80.  Pretty awesome.

And, finally, my iconic Golfing in Sunriver shot.  Love this one!

Pretty, right?  I just love it.  This is why I golf...the beautiful scenery!  After golf it was a quick lunch, and then my mom, my grandma, and I headed over to the gym for a workout.  After the workout it was cocktails and dinner!

Saturday was my last full day of vacation, and I intended to take full advantage of it.  I woke up early and ran down to the gym, got a workout in, and ran back.  It was, once again, a brilliant way to start the day!  After that and some breakfast, it was off to the river!  My mom, dad, grandma, and the dog shared a canoe. Meanwhile, I tried something that's been on my list of things to do for a while...I got a stand up paddle board!

Not gonna lie, paddle boarding was pretty effing sweet.  I really rather enjoyed it.  I was floating right on top of the water!  It was such an interesting and liberating way to see the area.  So calm and serene.

I have incredible balance, so I picked it up right away.  Didn't fall in once!  I'll definitely have to do it again.  Maybe in Hawaii!  The canoers had a good time too.  Especially Titan!

When we got home, it was time for lunch.  I believe we had lunch out at Cafe Sinata that afternoon.  That place made the best sandwiches.  I had this Italian sandwich with linguica, sausage, cheese, and marinara sauce on an incredible italian roll.  Just awesome!  After lunch my dad and I got in one last bike ride.  This time we just took it easy and flew around Sunriver's paved bike trails for an hour.  It was a wet ride, though, as the thunderstorms had built back in.  No hail this time, but we got pretty soaked.  Then it was home for cocktails and dinner!  Dinner that night was cooked mostly by me.  I did the turkey burger grilling, anyways. Also grilled up some veggies that were amazing!  Mmmmmmm.

And that was that.  Sunday my flight out of Redmond was at 6am, so that meant leaving Sunriver at 4:15 to get to the airport and hour early.  Ugh.  Interestingly enough, my plane that morning was a San Diego State painted plane!  Go Baby Sister's College!

Got home, Elaine picked me up, and we headed to Dustin's wedding!  Wedding was very fun...and the reception was at a really pretty park up in the mountains near Felton!  Both Elaine and I enjoyed ourselves.  I mean, how could we not when we look this good!

All in all, it was an awesome week.  Thank you to my parents, who made it all possible!  I love Central Oregon, and I loved the super active week I had.  The water sports, the mountain biking, the running and the golf.  Wish I could live like that all the time!

One last picture before I sign off.  Continuing the tradition of picking up art from the places I visit, I picked up the following piece while in Sunriver.

It's a local artist's rendition of the 18th green at the Sunriver Meadows course (see golf pictures above).  I love it!  I mean, its not just art from a place I've visited...its art OF a place I've been!  Very pretty.

Anyways, that's all for now!  No trips on the docket until Ab Feed in a few weeks!

Cheers!