Bend the Beautiful (Days Twenty-six and Twenty-seven)

The next two days were filled with food and relaxing. Walking and biking around Bend (pop 79,000) in the warm, sunny weather was like entering a sort of paradise. A sticker for sale demanded: "Be nice, you're in Bend" and the city lived up to it. Enjoying tempeh, kombucha, multiple self-serve frozen yogurt bars, and Deschutes brewery, we deliciously replenished ourselves. In the bends of the Deschutes river that give Bend its name, people floated on the slow-moving water. In kayaks and on paddle boards, but mostly in clumps of brightly-colored inflatable rafts they drifted along. Under the bright sunshine and set against the naturally swampy and grassy banks of the river (Bend seems to consciously promote habitat within city limits, even retaining large snags near the river), the scene was surreal.