Max is so cool! So he is getting even better at his craft?

Sounds like my kind of road trip.

Love the photo. I went to high school in Bend and spent many hours....ummmm....studying up on Pilot Butte. Bend looks huge now!

Lee, that is a gorgeous photo and it sounds like you are enjoying the trip. Good for Max, he's enjoying the trip as much as you are I expect.

Annie

Wonderful! I hope to see a posting or 2 of what Max has learned!

I haven't been to Bend since the late 1970s, when it's population was around 15,000. The first time I went there, I was hitchhiking from San Francisco to Vancouver in 1976 with a friend from Munich that I had just met at the train station in Guadalajara. We traveled together on the train to Tepic, where I got off to go to San Blas, but he stayed on the train to California and then met me in SF on his way up from L.A. He had heard a lot of stories about Bend, which is why he wanted to go through it, even though it was not on the way. I thought it was cute at the time but did not understand the attraction, since it was, as you say, rather cold. One of my best friends from L.A. now lives there, and I would like to visit her some time in the near future. I almost went there last year instead of Maui.

I hope you will be sharing photos, as I am sure Bend has changed drastically in the past 30-35 years.

We've been getting some cool weather on the West Coast, and Monday was quite cool in Westwood with temps in the mid 60s. I thought that Bend was far enough inland that it would not feel the cooling effects of the Pacific, but perhaps there are not enough mountains to block the air.

I also hope that you will be able to share photos from Max's watercolor workshop.

Lars

Wow! You're in my old stomping grounds. I grew up in Tumalo and graduated from Redmond High.

How long are you going to be there? My brother still lives in Redmond. I'm a couple of hours away.

Sounds like you're having a wonderful trip.

And, ummmm, KatieC....I KNOW what kind of studying happens at the top of Pilot Butte! :)

Deanna

LOL! We saw a little of the "studying" that goes on at the top of Pilot Butte - similar to studying in lots of places.

Bend is a lovely city, with many very beautiful homes on the river front. Unfortunately the light and the angles from the street weren't good for photographing the homes and yards and it was pretty cold in the early evening to walk. Bend, population 76,600 is smaller than Boulder, pop. 97,000 with Boulder county population of just under 300,000 but I can easily see that many of the same people would be attracted to both cities. So you can see Lars that it has grown immensely since you were here.

Both Boulder and Bend have unique shops and good restaurants. We are really enjoying our stay here. Tonight we went out with about 16 people from Max's workshop group - some painters, some spouses and significant others, the instructor and his wife and the workshop organizer. Food was good; I had seared ahi on a salad and Max had prime rib, and the company was a lot of fun. Unfortunately no pictures.

Tomorrow night we have reservations at the cooking school restaurant and I'll take some photos. I think restaurants at cooking schools are almost always good and always fun - we look for them wherever we travel.

Annie, we are both enjoying every bit of the trip. I've done some shopping, a first Trader Joes run and buying the deBuyer iron pans, and just enjoyed being in a lovely hotel while Max is painting. Most days he can meet me for lunch. The pace is perfect for me.

Cathy, Linda and Lars, I will share a few photos of Max's paintings from the workshop but I don't think there will be photos until Friday. I'll put a few in here from the Santa Fe workshop tomorrow.

Cathy, I can really see the differences in Max's paintings now that he has much more time to paint. I'm so glad that we finally got my medical bills paid off and he was able to retire.

Deanna, we are in Bend until Saturday morning, then spending the weekend in Portland, and then driving up to Port Townsend, WA to see a friend for two days and then winding our way home. We haven't been in Oregon and Washington for about 25 years and it's lovely to be here again.

To end with last night's dinner and keep this food related, here is my dinner from Pho Viet. I had grilled pork with a grilled shrimp garnish. Everything was fresh and yummy and the owner of this small and unpretentious kept us and everyone else in the restaurant smiling and laughing throughout the meal. He has a great personality for working with customers.

Lee

We had dinner last night at Elevation, the restaurant of the cooking school in Bend. I'm sorry I didn't take a shot of the restaurant because it is very contemporary, sophisticated and elegant.

I had a green scallion, goat cheese souffle as an appetizer and it was delicious. The grilled scallion was resting on a very thin slice of toast. Our guest had a kale salad and Max had cream of mushroom soup - both were good but neither was photogenic.

Max had the pork tenderloin which was marinated, sous vided then seared on a grill, over wheat berries and fava beans.

Our guest and I each had the chicken.

Max and I shared the two desert choice and our guest had the chocolate Monet.

It's always fun to go to cooking school restaurants. Here, the three course dinners were priced at $21.00 each and Max said the wine list was well priced. The students are almost always very earnest and pleasant and our server was no exception; the humorous moment in the evening happened very early when my water goblet was overfilled and a little spilled on the tablecloth. Our server immediately blotted it up totally unaware that the still full goblet was being held out of the way of the tablecloth at an increasing angle over my shoulder. I didn't say anything but we all breathed with relief when the tablecloth was blotted and none of the water was spilled on me.

I would have preferred a little less salt, but we use very little at home. All in all it was a very fun evening with nicely prepared food.

L

Wow, what a dining experience...visually appealing, nicely priced, gourmand. How did you come across this place?

"----I'm sorry I didn't take a shot of the restaurant because it is very contemporary, sophisticated and elegant. ---"

Wonderful eating experience. Thanks for sharing.

Here the link below for a real-timer view of Elevation dining room.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: Elevation

Deanna, we spent many summer days riding our 10-speeds to the park at Tumalo. Senior year it was on the back of the BF's motorcycle, hehe. (Also have some stories about Bend kids venturing to Redmond.)

A cooking school and a Trader Joe's...Bend's come a long way from the little community college/ski town I lived in. (Missing fudge royales at the Burger Hut.)

LOL dcarch - I had seen the live cam before and forgot about it. What I am seeing now is not at all like the restaurant we were in last night. Yes it is the same place, but it is now the final and clearly very casual evening. The school has just closed for the break in between terms. Last night there were fresh flowers, lovely service chargers with black cloth napkins folded and dropping down from under the plates. Last night the tables were separated into mostly four tops, with a few six top rounds. I was very happy to get a reservation before they closed for their break.

Thanks for finding the link and posting it.

L

KatieC,
What years were you there??
I remember a Redmond kids trip to Bend (1979-80) after a football stomping (by Redmond, which was unusual) resulting in the numbers "58-0" being etched in fertilizer on the Bend football field.

Not. Good.

Don't know if they ever caught the guilty ones or not, but it was a big deal!!

I lived over there from 1969 to 1985.

Deanna