Day 16: Crater Lake

We managed to get here right before the clouds started coming in. There are some truly spectacular views here.

Day 16: Bend, OR

A strong recommendation brought us to Deschutes brewery in Bend. What a good decision. Although the snotty dude sitting next to me at the bar complained that this was the "Disneyland of brewpubs" (ie crowded and overpriced), I thought it had great food and great microbrews.

Mac and cheese was super (those big chunks you see are giant prawns) and of the twelve beers we tasted, our favorites were the Oktoberfest, Black Butte Porter, and King Screamer IPA. Someday I'm going to have to find my way back here.

Day 16: Random stuff

Spent last night in Portland, OR and caught up with an old friend over some beers at a nearby Scottish pub (and yes, haggis was consumed).

This morning we woke up early (relatively speaking) and started our journey to Crater Lake. Just outside of Bend, OR we took a small detour to visit the Peterson Rock Garden and Museum. Some dude built all these buildings out of small rocks nearly fifty years ago and all this stuff is still here today, even though it is in slight disrepair. It's actually really impressive, especially when you consider that he built it mostly by himself.

Day 15: Willapa Bay

Ok. So we took a 3 hour detour to go to South Bend,WA which is the self proclaimed Oyster Capital of the WORLD. This excited me enough to head there without doing much research/planning.

While the oysters were friggin' huge, not a ton of flavor and not particularly cheap despite us going to the diviest dive bar in town.

If only I had thought to take a pic of the seedy characters smoking out in front of the joint.

Day 15: Mt Rainier, WA

Full day of driving across Washington state today, starting in Pullman, WA. Instead of driving I-5, we took the scenic route through the Yakima Valley and Snoqualmie National Forest.

Below is a nice view of Mt Rainier--not the clearest day, but the new iPhone HDR helps salvage the pic.