Day 131: Deja vu, Walter
August 19: Bend, OR
Ah, a relaxing morning. A relaxing day, really. We took our time getting up and eventually ordered an Uber to go to a breakfast place called Chow that my parents raved about when they were in Bend. Soon our Uber driver, Walter, pulled up and gave us a lift to the restaurant which was just as my parents described it: sublime. They had a small garden out front where they grew some of their own ingredients and lovely porch seating with some live music. For breakfast I had a corn bread pancake like thing with eggs Benedict, hollandaise sauce and house made pepper sauce. It was so good. On top of that I had some of the best freshly squeezed orange juice I’ve ever tasted. I swear it was about as sweet as Sunny D.
After breakfast Glowworm and I meandered to REI where we had to replace a few things. The building where REI is located in Bend is so cool. It’s in an old sawmill powerhouse with three massive smoke stacks towering out of it. Such a sweet way of using existing structures. I needed to replace my sleeping pad which had began to fall apart on me and needed new socks as well since one pair had a hole in them. The hope was to get them exchanged pro bono since both Thermarest and Darn Tough have excellent customer service, but I was only able to get my socks replaced since my pad was bought more than a year ago, but I’m planning on mailing my old pad home and sending it to Thermarest when I’m done so hopefully I can get a new one for free so I can then just have an extra. I also needed new shoes, but they didn’t have my size so I had to order them and pay additional for shipping which sucked, but whatever.
From there we got another Uber to Trader Joe’s for a special resupply since we normally shop at basic grocery stores. When the Uber arrived it was the same dude, Walter. God, he must run this town. It was fun to look at (and over buy) all the different snack options that a place like that had to offer. And I’m sure that it will be to no surprise that our personal chauffeur, Walter, came to drive us back to the hotel when we were done.
After a quick dip in the pool and a nap we made our way back to the Old Mill district where REI was to finally after several failed attempts see the new Planet of the Apes movie which was really good and get some dinner. We figured that since we’re committed to really treating ourselves here in Bend, we’d go to a nice Italian restaurant where we ate some really yummy bruschetta and had butternut squash ravioli. Pretty damn good day, I’d say.
