Hot Tub, Hot Thai, and High Desert Snow

I'll finish the trip report with today's post. Tomorrow looks to be a rare window of no-rain, so I hope to be working on the bus all afternoon. We'll see how the boss-man-work mandate fits into that. For ease of definition, from now on I'll be referring to my 11 year old as "T" and my 8 year old as "C". I am purposely not posting their names.

Down the Mountain Run, Boy, Run
In my last post, I described some of the effort of learning how to snowboard as taught by my 11 year old son, T. His patience was really impressive. I also mentioned my 8 year old (C) having had a ski lesson, but the instructor didn't take him up on the lift. Apparently, he was "too unstable" on his skis. He was so upset about not getting a real run, I took him up with T. So, try to imagine a first time snowboarder trying to help a first time skier down the beginner slope as the mountain is emptying. Crazy. Figure 1/3 of the trails dump into the top of the beginner slope, so there are very skilled skiers and snowboarders flying past. Until they were all gone. And then there were the 3 of us. C did great, though. I was pulling a falling-leaf to stay close to where I thought he was, and he slid by in a nice crouch. Until he wasn't. T and I spent a few minutes helping him back up, and off he went again, hooting as he skied. By mid-slope, T had boarded on ahead and C was handling himself pretty well. He still couldn't get the "equals sign" stop, which is expected, but he was able to turn into the slope to slow down. With this control, he worked his way down the mountain. Unfortunately, I had spent all of my energy just keeping him safe, so I had little left to get off the mountain myself. Once down, I was hurtin', ready for a hot tub and ready for some made-by-someone-else food.

Ameritel Rescue
The hotel (Ameritel) that offers the great breakfasts and 3rd night free lodging also offers a pool and hot tub (as well as a weight room, ski lockers, and a bunch of other stuff). Since we were kicked off the mountain at 4 anyway, we had some time before the rest of the family would be ready to eat. We got C's rental equipment returned, off the mountain and into the hot tub before 5. Yeah... that's the ticket. Almost a week later, I'm still a little sore, but I'm sure if I'd gone to the gym once this week, that soreness would have been worked out.

Toomies Thai
After a nice soak, we headed into Bend for some eats. My wife had found Toomies in an online review before we left home, so we thought we'd try that. It was "oh my god" good. Maybe it was because we had spent the afternoon falling down the mountain, but my wife was saying it was the best Thai she could remember, and she spent the afternoon in the lodge drinking tea and reading. The spring rolls were great, the Pad Thai, curry... yummy. We'll definitely go there again.

High Desert Snow
We talked about maybe going back up on the mountain. We learned later that there was freezing rain on Mt. Bachelor, so we made the right call. Instead, we went to the High Desert Museum, and enjoyed snow flurries there. It is a nice museum, with some interesting NorthWest Native American specific exhibits, and some interactive western life exhibits that the boys really liked. On the grounds, they have an 1800's settler's ranch with Williamsburg-style interpretive actors to bring the pioneer's daily experience to life.

Home again
We had a late lunch at the Deschuttes Brewpub in Bend (great beers, good food), and grabbed a mid-afternoon matinee of Alice in Wonderland. None of us were impressed with the film, but we hit Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream next door, and we reflected on our trip. We crashed and awoke early, and quickly made our way out of Bend. The drive home was relatively uneventful. We stopped in Detroit for lunch at a Deli/Coffee place on the western edge of town, and sped home. We made such good time that we were able to get a couple of hours of yard work in after unpacking the car.

This Summer, we are planning to camp alongside one of the many lakes on the west side of Mt. Bachelor. I truly love this area of Oregon, and am really looking forward to that trip. I intend to figure out a day-trip into Bend or at least a stop-on-the-way for a growler of Deschuttes beer and some more of that tasty Thai.

pictures:
top - C drawing while waiting for food at Deschuttes Brew Pub
middle - I believe that's the mountain 3-fingered-Jack taken through the windshield
bottom - The High Desert Museum sign - note the snow flurries