“Breathing Lessons in Bend, Oregon”
The kitchen shenanigans continued on Monday morning with D making a trip with the twins to pick out marble for the countertops. She likes that piece hanging from the forklift, and was quite elated when able to convince me that we should get a bit extra to make a “waterfall” on one end of the island. Here’s a picture in case, like me, you’re wondering what that “waterfall” might look like.
Finn and I headed out for a coffee in the afternoon. It’s nice to have a coffee drinker around with a flexible schedule. We tried the new PJ’s New Orleans coffee shop – not bad but some kinks to work out for sure. Then we picked up some new jeans for Finn – just like the other pair he has. Certainly a creature of habit.
Finn cooked up some yummy chickpea pasta with pesto sauce and chicken for dinner – apparently the secret was to cook the pasta in chicken broth. We attempted to watch some of the NCAA “March Madness” basketball tournament but that was not going over well with McD.
Tuesday ended up being quite the eventful day. Finn was scheduled for his 
COVID shot in the afternoon at the Allen football stadium. Can you believe that is a high school stadium? The local Fire Department was in charge of this site and they were extremely efficient – 2 minutes from entering the parking lot until shot in the arm. We pulled Penelope into a parking spot to wait the requisite 15 minutes before leaving. Then things almost immediately took a bad turn. Finn said he was feeling faint, went pure white, leaned back in his seat, eyes rolling back and body shaking. Good grief – time for some help! The paramedic showed up quickly and hooked Finn up to an EKG, pulse, and blood pressure machine. Both pulse and blood pressure had dropped to very low levels. As he regained consciousness, Finn was not at all pleased to hear the paramedic say that he wanted to check his blood sugar level – “I don’t recommend poking me with any needles just now” – the paramedic nodded along, stuck him before he noticed, and reported blood sugar just fine. After about 10 minutes some color started creeping back into his face and we rejected the strong advice of the fire department ambulance workers that had arrived on the scene to go with them to the nearest hospital. Another 30 minutes or so and Finn was on his couch resting. Diana and I took turns checking on him. He claims that he “died and came back to life” and that “there’s not a bright light to guide you”. I think he’s a good story teller.
Diana made us some delicious chicken empanadas, in the special machine we’ve had for over a year and never used, as a treat for surviving the afternoon escapades. In Pacifica, Clorinda was getting quite the kick out of her dinosaur taco holder.
Shortly after dinner I received a call from Brennon at Skyline to let me know they had a spot for Finn earlier than expected. He was scheduled for April 26th but they could now take him as early as Sunday. Time to jump into planning mode around getting Finn out there on the weekend. By the time I went to bed I had booked flights and found what I thought would be a good hotel for a weekend stay. Told you it was quite an eventful day.
On Wednesday both Finn and I visited Dr. Haslam, the orthopedic surgeon that fixed my broken leg. Me to get my repaired leg checked and to make sure my right leg was okay, Finn to check out his wrist which hurts when he lifts any weight. X-rays didn’t show anything notable and so the recommendation is that we both get MRIs for more detail. I did get a cream that should help my left leg.
We stopped into Nerdvana coffee on the way home from the doctor visit. Finn was entertained by all the role playing games they sold and was particularly tickled by what he described as the “Episode of the Big Bang Theory” taking place at the table next to us. A group of geeky folks were going deep into what makes a good cup of coffee – way deep.
Finn got a COVID test on Thursday, as required by Skyline for admission – thankfully the test doesn’t cause any scary side-effects. I took him for a haircut and picked up some final supplies. He seems prepared but neither of us really want him to go – it’s been such a treat having him with us and he’s really settled in. Change and the unknown future are hard.
I absolutely love this penguin art that he created for me with a note that I’ll treasure on the back.
We had an early start to the airport on Friday morning for our flights to Seattle and then Redmond, Oregon. A bit of an initial snafu – I had splurged on first class seats for the trip out, but the plane didn’t have a row 4 where we were sitting. Some jiggery pokery ensued and then we were reassigned to exit row seats and saved some money. Finn was able to lord it up in first class by himself. A reasonably quick change in Seattle – just time for a coffee – and we were on our way to Redmond. The views from the plane around Seattle and Redmond were quite spectacular. You can definitely make out the volcanic shape in the first picture.
After a 20 minute drive we were checking into our hotel in Bend, Oregon. The Riverhouse on the Deschutes was a perfect home base for us, with great views of the river from our balconies and a pleasant restaurant and bar with a large deck on the opposite side of the river. A cabin just down the bank from our rooms had an interesting story as told on this sign:
Apparently John Wayne and Katharine Hepburn stayed at the hotel during filming.
The view from our bedroom balcony was really relaxing with the pines and the flowing river.
We enjoyed an early Friday dinner at Joolz Mediterranean in downtown Bend – an eclectic few blocks of restaurants, bars, boutiques, coffee shops, and record and book stores. This restaurant was outstanding. Chef Ramsey 
worked wonders with simple ingredients. My favourite was the fried cauliflower – tremendous flavour. The lamb meatballs and hummus with elk meat were also excellent. Diana proclaimed the chopped salad the best she had tasted in ages. Finn finished off with his favourite dessert – baclava, and had some leftover to go with the lemon bars that D had snuck into his back-pack. All three of us are still raving about this place and can’t wait to visit Bend again so that we can go back. An early night was called for after all the travel and excitement of the day.
Saturday started with coffee at Spoken Moto, a great combination of coffee shop and vintage motorcycle store. I loved the green egg bowl from the Scoutpost food truck in the patio area. Bend has so many excellent coffee shops per square mile – can we just have a couple of them in McKinney?
Suitably coffeed, we made the 20 minute drive to explore Tumalo falls. I had read that you could hike a somewhat robust 2.5 miles to the falls or drive right up to them and park. The road in was closed off and I couldn’t understand why, so we parked and investigated. None of us had the proper shoes for a 2.5 mile hike up a rocky path but decided to at least have a short wander. We quickly realized that the snow on the road was the reason for it being close off. I don’t think we went much over half a mile up the path, but did get some good photos. Can you tell Finn is feeling a wee bit cold?
The exploration continued with a drive on down the road to the Mount Bachelor ski resort – in full swing on a sunny day and not too busy. Finn liked the half-pipe and snowboard jumps. Hopefully he gets to partake before Spring skiing ends. The mountain is less than 30 minutes from his house.
We arrived back in downtown Bend in time for Diana and Finn to enjoy a yummy brunch at the Lemon Tree – they weren’t hungry when I had breakfast earlier at the Scoutpost. I got to sample their delicacies. Diana was quite adventurous and ordered the Shakshuka – a Tunisian dish with a sauce of tomatoes, chile peppers and onions simmered with North African spices, and served with poached eggs and grilled Stirato – delicious combination of flavours. Diana described the Lemon Tree experience as “great food, lousy service.” She was not wrong. The only poor service we experienced all weekend – the overall vibe was very much friendly and welcoming.
We had a wander around downtown and then headed back to the hotel to relax before dinner at 900 Wall (right next door to Joolz). This was a fancier restaurant that didn’t disappoint at all. We started with a charcuterie board and tempura fried green beans (a big hit), and then Finn surprised us by insisting on the duck confit (even after I tried to steer him to a few other things) – it ended up being delicious and he finished every bite on the plate. Diana had the teres major. Anybody heard of that? We certainly hadn’t. Turns out it’s the second most tender steak from a cow but only a very small piece (0.5%) of the total beef from the cow. Diana enjoyed it very much and had plenty of leftovers. I tried the much lauded burger and loved it. Can you tell we enjoyed our meals in this picture?
Easter Sunday started relatively early with a 9am brunch at McKay’s cottage restaurant. This place was almost next door to the hotel and was just perfect. Coffee and drinks while you waited for your table, excellent food and very good service. They even had laminated menus just for Easter Sunday and you can see eggs hidden around for kids to hunt (see – in the flowers?) I highly recommend this brunch if you ever make it to Bend. On the subject of eggs – check out the decorating skills of Damon’s artsy family after the breakfast pictures.
We dropped Finn off at his home for the next 3 to 6 months after brunch. He’ll be sharing the house with 6 other young men and the place looked really nice – large yard with pine trees and lots of seating areas. The two folks that we met (Gage and Will) who are associated with the house and program were very kind and welcoming. It was exceptionally hard to leave Finn after he’d done so well living with us, but we believe he is in great hands as he starts the next chapter.
Diana and I distracted ourselves with a hike down the Deschutes river trail. We picked up the trail about a third of a mile from the hotel and followed it for a mile and a half or so back into downtown. The river changed from broad and slow moving to fast paced rapids, with canoeists practicing their slalom course moves at one point. The large houses on the banks had fantastic situations.
We had intended to end our hike with a visit to the Pine Tavern on the river bank. That was closed and so we ended up back at 900 Wall with a lovely table in the sun and some more of those delicious green beans.
We called it an early night after that – our 7am start on Monday came quickly. The flights home were smooth. I love flying from small regional airports like Redmond where you’re the only folks in the security line and everything is so quiet and relaxed. The view from the rental car parking lot is pretty great too.
I finished “Breathing Lessons” by Anne Tyler and I did enjoy the remainder much more than the first third – maybe I was just in the right frame of mind. I always like it when the first paragraph of a book sets the scene of what lies ahead so concisely:
“Maggie and Ira Moran had to go to a funeral in Deer Lick, Pennsylvania. Maggie’s girlhood friend had lost her husband. Deer lick lay on a narrow country road some ninety miles north of Baltimore, and the funeral was scheduled for ten-thirty Saturday morning; so Ira figured they should start around eight. This made him grumpy. (He was not an early-morning kind of man.) Also Saturday was his busiest day at work, and he had no one to cover for him. Also their car was in the body shop.”
The different personalities of Maggie and Ira and they way react to situations with families and friends are at the heart of this story:
“‘Oh, great, Maggie; another one of your logical progressions.’
‘One thing about you that I really cannot stand,’ she said, ‘is how you act so superior. We can’t have just a civilized back-and-forth discussion; oh, no. No, you have to make a point of how illogical I am, what a whifflehead I am, how you’re so cool and above it all.'”
I saw a report on TV about “Leave Out the Tragic Parts” by Dave Kindred and decided to torture myself by reading it this week – hoping to learn some more on the topic of addiction. Kindred is a sportswriter who has won numerous awards and covered most of the major sporting events over the last 30 years. He lost his grandson to alcohol addiction in 2014.
The story is equally tragic, well researched and very well written. Jared, the grandson, joins an underground group of young people who travel around the country by jumping on railway cars and then sleep on the streets in whichever city they land in. I had never heard of such a thing. Several of the characters in the book have been living this way for many years. Jared becomes completely addicted to alcohol and, even after many hospital visits where he suffers seizures whenever off alcohol for more than a few hours, continues on with his self-destructive lifestyle. I had several quotes dog-eared to share, but they’re all too heavy right now, so I’ll share just the most poignant paragraph from the book:
“Unless you’ve been there, you can’t imagine what it’s like to watch helplessly as someone you love descends into addiction. The transformation defies logic – until you understand that your loved one is gravely ill with a brain disease that is debilitating, chronic, progressive, and, if left untreated, often fatal.”
Switching quickly to a more positive quote. Here Kindred talks about telling one of his sports journalism stories to Jared:
“Jared, learning to play soccer, liked the story about the poor boy who kicked a ball made of rags. “Tell me Pele”, he said, and we went in our imagination first to Brazil and finally to the Meadowlands stadium, where I heard the greatest soccer player ever, in the last game of his career, shout to the 75,646 spectators, “Repeat after me: Love…Love…Love.””
I love the feel of this song from trumpeter and label owner Willie Mitchell. Classic 70s beats:
Here are two versions of a John Prine classic – I love them both:
And finishing up with one of my top three songs – Diana and I enjoyed a version from a street musician performing in downtown Bend as we enjoyed our drinks and snack at 900 Wall on Sunday afternoon:
Stay kind and patient with everyone!