Back to the West: Central Oregon--Pt. II

Ah--the gray skies and rain have finally arrived in the very dry PNW...

a good day to cook some beautiful sweet orange winter squash (ambercup + gold nugget),

drink some hot mountain huckleberry tea

and remember the brilliant sun, blue skies and gorgeous leaf colors of central Oregon.

 ~

Let me see,

I believe last time we met my friend and I were in Sisters at Sisters Coffee Company...

 so we'll begin there.

We were sitting on the comfortable leather sofa in front of the big stone fireplace,

enjoying a eggnog coffee and some huckleberry iced tea,

munching on some very yummy cookies and relaxing to some good music!

Definitely an awesome place with friendly staff, yummy baked goods

 and a wonderful western decor:)

BTW, here is a photo of their outside eating area--they had a nice water feature there!

(to see more photos go here: http://www.sisterscoffee.com/hood_avenue.html)

With some newly purchased Mountain Huckleberry tea in hand we were on our way to the next destination---

Bend, Oregon.

Here we stopped at the visitor center to get

some very specific information about places I wanted to go,

things I wanted to see

and other things.

The staff  were friendly and extremely helpful;

I definitely recommend a stop there if you need information about this area.

(and BTW they were SO right about the friendliness of Bend residents).

With maps, pamphlets and a visitor guide in hand,

we headed to the next item on my 'to see' list...

Drake Park-

a wonderful park located along the Deschutes River.

There we enjoyed some golden tree leaf color,

the river

and the very entertaining ducks and geese!

LOVED it:)

From there we traveled a bit to see my beautiful niece...

also a lover of photography and nature, by the way:)

I definitely wanted to give her a proper hug goodbye as she leaves on a new adventure soon

Is it OK if I say I'll miss her...?

I will.

After bidding my talented  niece goodbye and wishing her well,

we took one of the routes the visitor center staff had recommended

(they SO understood my NEED for lots of autumn color)...

it just so happened to take us up a butte where we did see lots of  autumn color

and a whole lot more!

(the photo above is a bit of the whole lot more)

 

Next stop: time under the aspen trees.

 

Notes + Photos: 

Sisters Coffee Company

http://www.sisterscoffee.com/history-of-sisters-coffee-company.html

Visit Bend

http://www.visitbend.com/

Drake Park, Bend.

 

A BIG thank you to Sisters Coffee Company for permission to take and

post photos taken from inside their incredible coffee shop!

(SO hungry for one of their wonderful oatmeal-cranberry cookies right now).

Way too short of a trip...

 

As usual, I am not associated, except as a satisfied customer, with any of the businesses I feature (unless I say so specifically).  

 

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Columbus Day storm,

do any of you remember it?