Bend, OR

Upon showing up at the Asian Festival at the Lane County Fairgrounds there was hardly any parking and after hunting we finally found a spot way out in left field. I kept remarking about the amount of cars and that I was surprised at the amount of people who would choose to go to the festival. Well to my surprise the festival was great. We had a blast. There were a million streaming people and the whole place was redolent w/ not only the different smells of Asian food fare but the different arts were amazing.

Local Ocean Seafood sits across the street from the commercial fishing docks, down on Newport’s old bay front. Doesn’t the name just sound so appropriate considering it’s location. I wonder what it is that you think Local Ocean is? Honestly Local Ocean is a restaurant/café. I had never been to Local Ocean but it came on a recommendation and so instead of going to my normal haunt of Mo’s and eating chowder, I came here.

Waldport seems to be a town frozen in time as much hasn’t seemed to change since I went to school there over 20 years ago. This is still a tiny little town that sits between Florence and Newport. Waldport sits at the mouth of the Alsea River, once famous for it’s steelhead and salmon fishing and still famous for its’ beauty. This little area seems to keep time well with the earlier periods of the late 1900’s and on the surface, technology doesn’t seem to have caught up with the rest of the world.

I love this place! The mystifying moments of the deep where one can walk through, under and over all those creatures we never see, those that swim in the depths of our vast Pacific Ocean. The tunnels of glass allowed me to see, in a 360 degree view, the different species of fish, sharks, starfish, eels, stingrays and a bunch of other species of which I have no clue as to what they are. What I do know is that being inside this glass tunnel was mesmerizing. You can reach out and touch all these creatures or so it seems.

As a young child I well remember Agate Beach. We used to camp right on the beach for days on end and my brother and I would spend much of most days exploring and playing in the surf. Today I do not believe camping on this particular beach is allowed but nonetheless I still visit; sometimes for the memory, sometimes to see the changes, sometimes to find the famous agates that this beach is named for.

I should have written about Sumpter before now as I have been there before and summer is vastly different than winter. Maybe it is something about old mining towns, on the verge of becoming a ghost town that intrigue me. This time that I went was just recent and with a group of friends from John Day so that we could go snowmobiling. Sumpter in the summer gives much more access to what is really there, what you can’t see beneath the snow.

Bandon is part of Oregon’s southern coastline. Though small Bandon thrives and has its’ own bit of history. Originally it was a gold mining town though that didn’t last long. What Bandon is famous for are the commercials that have been filmed there by Budweiser and their Clydesdales, Chevrolet and Jeep, all ocean scenes, as well as a few other companies.

One day in July a good friend of mine asked if I wanted to go to the Mosquito Festival. I thought he was crazy. A festival about mosquitos is all I could think of and the look on my face must have showed it as he started to laugh and explain that it wasn’t about mosquitos. His explanation was that it was a huge, weekend long festival but he wasn’t sure why the mosquito part but he had always enjoyed himself. So in the end I said ok.

In my posting of Central Oregon at Large I mentioned Kokanee Café. The little know café yet large with reputation. While being only 45 minutes from Bend on W. Hwy 20 it seems as if few local residents make the trip here. In the summer there are actually thousands of patrons, mostly from out of town. This café sits on the Metolius River and is the most esteemed river for its’ fly fishing and is a challenge to fish even for the most seasoned fisher person, as I call those of us who fish.

Read through the article and you will find out exactly why it is that Hoodoo is so aptly named. Located just over an hour from Bend and 15 minutes from Camp Sherman is Hoodoo Ski Resort where my preference to ski is. I drive this pass a lot when I visit my daughter so in that I pass the ski resort frequently so it is nothing for me to plan a stop for some skiing should I choose to do so.