“Tired!”

That’s my daughters favorite response anytime anyone asks her how she’s feeling. But the truth is that we rolled into summer pretty exhausted and not super excited about an intense adventure and long plane rides. The end of school was filled with extra rehearsals, recitals, track meets, and golf tourneys. Sonali and I have also just been slammed with work. There’s also so much uncertainty, especially with my exposure to renewables that we decided to keep it more low key.

So instead of Europe or Asia, we built a full vacation around our friend’s destination wedding in Bend, Oregon.

After tossing around a few different ideas, we decided to head down to Bend a day early on Thursday, stay in Bend till Tuesday, then spend the rest of the week at the coast in Depoe bay.

My first 18 hole golf experience outside of my home city. It's hard to beat the views with multiple, distinct mountain peaks. Thanks Zac for setting this up and bringing my clubs!

The Wedding

Our dear friends Ellen and Matt finally had their wedding date set on July 19th, 2025, 4 years to the weekend to when Matt proposed. We’ve only know them for a few years when shortly after buying their new house they stopped by ours with a six-pack, in what was somewhat of a reverse house-warming. We became fast friends and few weekends go by without a shared bottle of wine or a quick bite.

We got to be passengers and witnesses to the effort the two of them put into planning the event, even occasionally being asked to provide opinions on shoes, testing out the wedding invite page (first RSVP!), and carry items down from Seattle. It made being there at the day extra special.

The happy couple! Ellen and Matt have become close friends and we were honored to be at their wedding.

Big events are better with a few friends. A few of our neighbors also made the trip down to Bend.

It was a lovely and fun wedding. The Bride looked awesome. The Groom looked awesome. Even the guests looked great. The ceremony was just the right length. Long enough to feel momentous and shed a few tears of joy, but not so long that heat stroke became a concern.

Then it was onto the pure fun part. Ellen and Matt are great hosts and we had actually met a lot of the attendees at other parties of theirs. It was great to catch up with people we hadn’t seen in a few months. The desert weather was perfect in the shade and much rose was drunk. The pizza as good too!

No surprise, this was the last group standing at the end of the night.

Rest of Bend

Bend is a resort town and our plan was to do resort town things when we weren’t at the wedding. On the first day in, I had my first real vacation golf experience at Juniper Golf Course. We picked up my friend’s wife from the nearby Redmond airport on the way back and got totally stuck in music festival traffic. So it all felt very vacation town.

Unfortunately Sonali was fighting a stomach bug and Mira hurt her foot, so exploring Bend turned more into playing the Steam Deck and reading books.

I did get out once to catch up with the newlyweds for a few decompression beers, as well as make it out to my favorite brewery, Crux.

I attempted to get the ultimate Bend picture, featuring beer, a 4 runner, and mountains

Bend to the coast

We were recovering, but still ailing when it was time to leave Bend, causing us to debate skipping Crater Lake as it would add about 4 hours to our total trip. However, while waiting in line for brunch, an Oregon Tradition, on Saturday morning the lovely couple in front talked about how much they loved Crater Lake and we decided to go.

Sonali and I ended up being very happy with our decision, though Mira was overcome with some heights-itis. Unfortunately, given how everyone was feeling and the 5 hour drive still waiting in front of us, we didn’t walk down the trail to the water which will be closed after this season to at least 2029.

I don't think any picture can do it justice. Crater Lake is an amazingly beautiful spot.

After that, it was down the mountain to the coast. Our route took us from the headwaters of the Umpqua River out to where it drains into the Pacific Ocean, then up 101 to Depoe Bay in twisty, increasingly forested roads. What I love about the PNW is the drastic difference in climate in just a few hours. Hot high desert plateau, to mountain top, to rainforest, to coastal in just a handful of hours. It keeps the drive interesting, but getting the Tahoe through the twisties is pretty exhausting. It’s not the most responsive vehicle.

Depoe Bay

We’ve been to the Northwest Pacific Coast a few times now so we knew not to get too many plans. No matter what the forecast says the reality is that is most likely going to be gray and moody. We rented a condo with an ocean view so the absolute worst case we could sip our coffee and watch the waves.

The view from our balcony. Not a bad place to enjoy a coffee or beer

It turned out much better. Some of the resident gray whales found the area right in front of our condo as a prime feeding location.

There was a lot of activity right in front of our condo

If the water activity wasn't enough, we also got a flyover from a jet

We did visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport Bay. It’s a smaller, but well done aquarium right at the edge of the bay. We attempted to visit the Rogue Brewery after. The wait was too long for alright bar food and we opted to cross the bay to eat at Clearwater Restaurant instead where we all enjoyed our meals.

The aquarium was nicely done with both indoor and outdoor exhibits. We liked how they brought the natural environment into it as well. Though sea tunnels are always the show stopper picture.

It's a rule. You have to take a picture of jellyfish every time you go to an aquarium

Stopped at Rogue Brewing. Decided to go to the gift shop instead of the restaurant.

We also got out to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse between Newport and Depoe bay in one of the brief windows of blue skies.

The lighthouse is on BLM land. It has an interesting visitor center and very pretty views from the outcrop. Since it was just after bird nesting season, there was quite the smell of guano in spots.

There are some sandy beaches, which you don't really get in the Sound, but the water is still freezing cold.

Our last “cultural moment” was stopping at the Tillamook Creamery, which is huge as a cheese and ice cream brand in the PNW. We were honestly pretty surprised with how popular this attraction was. It was neat seeing the machinery that goes into making cheese and of course we finished off with some ice cream and pizza.

This is where our cheese comes from! The most interesting fact for me was that the parts they have to cut off the blocks to get them into uniform size is what they use for shredded cheese.