Good times in Bend, Oregon
5 min readBend definitely isn’t a secret in the PNW - all my Portland buddies have great things to say about this place. It was a cloudy day in Portland, and I was shocked to see bright sunny weather after making the ~3 hour drive southeast.
I’d describe the place as laid back, outdoorsy, and peaceful (but not boring). Everyone here seemed so happy, which made me wonder why! Was it their youth? =)
If you’re considering checking Bend out, below are some ideas for your trip!
1) Kick off your trip with a visit to Sparrow Bakery.
My friend recommended the Ocean Roll from Sparrow Bakery years ago. Based solely on her description, I haven’t been able to get it out of my mind.
This pastry delivered as expected. I love food that’s so good I get confused. I took a bite, and wasn’t even sure what I was eating - I just knew I loved it. Turns out, an ocean roll is croissant dough layered with cardamom, sugar, and vanilla.
I was thinking wild thoughts about cardamom and so I got their cardamom latte too. That one ended up being too sweet for my taste, but that’s just me. In my opinion, where they shine is their baked goods.
We randomly picked up their Coconut Pecan Granola and holy sh*tballs… it was so good! Thankfully they ship a lot of their items, so I was able to place an order online after our trip. Interestingly they ship their ocean rolls too!
2) Check out a concert at Hayden Homes Amphitheater.
The sunset and cloud formations behind the Hayden Homes Amphitheater stage were unreal. We were lucky enough to get to see Khruangbin. I was sober but legit felt high off the soundwaves. I’m not a music expert but considering that this was an outdoor venue, I thought the sound quality was really good!
They had a variety of food but the quality was pretty standard of a concert venue. Also keep in mind that you’ll need to follow typical rules about bag size - they enforced it for us - check out their website for more details.
Would definitely plan my next trip to Bend around another concert!
3) Go paddleboarding down the Deschutes River!
After hopping around to a couple places that were sold out of paddleboards, we were thankful to find Tumalo Creek Kayak & Canoe. The people working there were so happy/nice. There’s a convenient parking lot, and the entrance to the river is right behind the shop.
What I observed, was the most common rentals were paddle boards and innertubes for floating down the river. We considered doing a float, but when we went (in July), the river wasn’t moving that quickly. So I was happy to have a bit of control with my paddleboard.
A few unexpected things:
-My husband lost his glasses in the water and we found out it was mossy down there (eeeep hahaha) so uh, wear contacts.
-There are random street performers along the river, which is pretty entertaining. One of them proposed to my friend. Which was hilarious because she ACTUALLY got proposed to, foreal, the next day. Yee!!!
-If you get lucky, you may get a free concert when you paddle by the Hayden Homes Amphitheater. I remember laying down on my paddle board, listening to the sweet smooth sound of a guy doing soundcheck. Based on the below, we later found out we were listening to Jason Mraz!!!
4) Post water excursion, for an easy meal, hit up 9th Street Village.
9th Street Village was a nice place to dry off and each grab whatever we wanted from a variety of food trucks. There’s also a brewery, Bevel Craft Brewing, that has a bathroom and a kitchen too, in case you want something more fancy than food truckage.
5) BBQ at home.
I will probably repeat this on every post, but we love to cook at home during a group vacation. It’s fun to cook big portions and you get to try a variety of things! Bend has many options for grocery stores, including a Whole Foods.
