lava balls - day 2

I woke to the sound of birds chirping at the myriad feeders surrounding the cabin. A quick shower, then I went to work on making a rustic breakfast – hazelnut 10-grain pancakes and bacon, while Jesse retrieved coffee from the town center. Jesse got some nice photographs of one of my favorite birds, the ornately Mohawked Steller’s Jay. We cleaned up the cabin – I broke a teacup in the process – and we bid farewell to the quaint little cottage.

We drove the short distance down the freeway into Bend. We were finally visiting Bend, a place loved by so many and pleasantly reminiscent of Northern Arizona, or so I hear. We passed through the city and found the first entrance to the Newberry National Volcanic Monument. I was delighted to spot a raven walking around on the gold bed of pine needles. We spent some time in the interpretive center before setting out to explore the harsh, black hills of hardened lava. A sidewalk path ran up and through those hills, to hidden corners and scenic overlooks. Note: For those of you hoping to visit this monument in the future, lava rock is extremely sharp.

We had a fun time trying to take photos of ourselves by wedging my camera into the aforementioned lava rock. By the time I realized I should set the camera on a stable bench and got the timer set up properly after 5 failed attempts, we could hear other visitors approaching. It was probably around shot 2 of 10 that the small group arrived, so rather than posing for the automatic photos and trying to look halfway decent, we chatted with the newcomers as the camera snapped away. A male from the group kindly offered to take our photograph, but made the fairly glaring mistake of cutting off parts of our feet. Oh, and it was crooked. Thank you though, sir.

We finished up and drove a mile down the road to the mythical Lava Tube. This expansive cave stretches at least 1.1 miles into the Earth, a cylinder formed by hot flowing lava. We armed ourselves with a big flashlight and a lantern and descended into the blackness. We’d both been in caves before, but there was something extremely thrilling about heading straight back into the ground, passing other groups, the temperature growing cooler. After hiking for a mile, the ceiling of the tube began to drop. And then it dropped further. Soon, we were crawling on hands and knees. A group nearby warned us that the cave continued on, but the opening grew so small and confined that travel became uncomfortable. We took a few photos, again having a friendly stranger offer to help out – though we were in absolute pitch darkness this time.

After reaching the exit of the cave, we returned the borrowed lantern and hopped back in the car to hit up the Bite of Bend festival. Our appetites were raging, so we jumped at the chance to taste some spicy little corn fritters with a sweet jelly sauce as soon as we arrived at the festival. The wind was whipping through the main food concourse, but we didn’t let that deter us from feasting. I ended up having an elote (grilled corn on the cob with butter, cheese and red chili powder) and a wonderful lemon curd-blueberry crepe. Jesse had some sausage, chicken wings (I think?), Asian food, and then we got a few more corn fritters for the road. Those definitely need to be replicated in my kitchen. I’m having trouble believing that was all I ate at the fest. I’ll have to think about it.

We made it home safely, reinvigorated but at the same time content. Having a little getaway to look forward to does wonders for the soul, and having it turn out well and become a happy memory is even better. I can’t wait to return to Central Oregon!