Ethan fly fishing

Ethan and I went on our first real fly fishing outing this morning. We've done a lot of hiking and exploring looking for spots over the past couple of weeks. Today we got our lines wet. Not a whole lot of success, but it was beautiful out. Oh yeah, this spot is less than 30 minutes from our house. We were able to get nearly 5 hours of fishing in and still make it home for lunch. This afternoon we plan on riding our bikes downtown and hearing a free outdoor bluegrass concert.




This one is a little dark, but you may be able to make Ethan out. That's Mt. Bachelor in the background.



Yesterday we went wakeboarding at Prineville Reservoir. We've now been wakeboarding at 3 different lakes within an hour of our house and a 4th that is a little over an hour away. Pretty nice. Prineville was a great spot, I think it may become our prime destination.

Tumalo Creek hike

Today we went on a hike by Tumalo Creek. Tumalo Falls is about 10 miles from our house and marks a trailhead into a network of trails that go up into wilderness areas in the Cascades. We only went a few miles, but it was pretty spectacular if you like waterfalls. This same creek ends up flowing only a mile from our house before it dumps into the Deschutes River.

Bend music scene

One of my few apprehensions about moving to Bend was leaving the Santa Cruz music scene. Santa Cruz has great live music and Karen and I would go out a lot there. Well, my fears have been misplaced thus far. I already wrote about seeing Dave Alvin. Last night we saw a double bill with two groups we really like: Shawn Colvin (folk) and The Cowboy Junkies (alt folk-rock). Tonight we got to see Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum (bluegrass) for only $5!

Both shows were outside under the stars. It briefly drizzled on us tonight, but the clouds soon parted and we were treated to a wonderful double rainbow and got to watch the ducks and geese fly by. Later saw the moon rise, all while listening to a wonderful group of musicians.

To top it off, David Grissman is playing in town in two weeks and the Sisters Folk Festival is right after that! Not bad at all. I've been told that the music scene slows down a lot in the winter, but it seems that the summer more than makes up for it.

Motorcycle accident news video

I posted the local TV news report of my motorcycle accident. Go to the motorcycle wreck link.

Wakeboarding at Billy Chinook

We just got back from a day of boating on Lake Billy Chinook. It was a little busy, but the canyon walls, waterfalls, views of Mt. Jefferson, and watching the Osprey take trout (along with a little wakeboarding) made for a fun day. Follow the wakeboarding link on the right to see a video of Ethan.

Green clouds

Living at 3600 feet in the Cascades is going to be interesting for a long time, I think. Yesterday it was over 90 degrees during the day and we went for a float down the Deschutes through town. People were picnicing at parks along the way and swimming in the river. In the late afternoon a thunder and lightening storm developed, which treated us to a spectacular light display. It lasted an hour or so. It remained warm and dry and we gathered in the street with the neighbors to watch. As the sun went down we saw a simply breathtaking sunset with more colors in the sky than I can remember ever seeing, including deep green clouds set on a light turquoise sky. We raised a glass of wine to that.

Final (?) house exterior video

Follow the "New House" link on the right.

It's been a busy 24 hours

Last night we went to see Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men at a little hole in the wall called The Domino Room. Not exactly the kind of place we're used to seeing live music in, but it was OK and Dave rocked! He played flat-out for 2 hours, non-stop. It was awesome - and it only cost $10! We came home around midnight and sat in our backyard to watch the meteor shower - another thing you can't do in Santa Cruz. We're at 3600 feet, with no city lights around, and you can see the Milky Way perfectly while sitting on our patio. And it was warm out!

Today we got up and took our Oregon drivers tests. Karen and I both passed on our first try. I guess we really are transplants now. Oregon drivers licenses, Oregon plates on our cars, trailers, and boat. All the Tahoe ski resort stickers are still on the space box on the truck, though.

After getting our new drivers licenses, we did a little light-duty 4-wheelin' up in the mountains on a fire road and came to this great view of Mt. Bachelor. Some of our favorite "backside" ski/snowboard runs are in the background.



On the way down we stopped at Todd Lake and played in the water with our inflatable kayak which we had brought along. That's Broken Top Mountain in the background. We struck up a conversation with a guy on the side of the lake. Turns out he is an inventor who comes there to think. He invented the indicator on the side of household batteries that shows remaining battery strength, among other things. He was working on a way to indicate hours an electric device/appliance has been in operation. Pretty neat. We always meet interesting people whenever we go out here.



All-in-all a good 24 hours.

Looking into the water

You can't see the bottom like this on many lakes in California.

New wake surfing video

Check the link on the right to see Ethan wakesurfing.

Deja Vu

We seem to have this experience a lot. (See "Mud Puppies" below.)

Lunch on Crescent Lake

We went on our first boating trip in Oregon yesterday. It will take getting used to. The locals sent us to Crescent Lake, "a big, warm lake", which turned out to be small and a little cold by California standards. But, the water was really clear and clean (at least 20 foot visibility) and the views were great.

In Bend and back online

Well, the move is complete and I'm finally back online (grrr...I called for the DSL installation over a month ago!). The past 2 weeks have been busy and somewhat stressful (will the moving truck really show up?), but it's been worth it. Bend is a pretty special place, certainly a step up from Santa Cruz in a number of ways. I'll get some new videos and photos up tomorrow.