A long weekend...

Monday was a public holiday in the United States for Memorial Day, although the weekend is to commemorate all those who have served for the US in the military, it is also an extended weekend. We were originally not sure what to do with the weekend, so on Saturday night we decided that we would head out for another "adventure."

We headed south east to a place around 4 hours out of Portland called Bend. It is a sizable place where many people have decided to retire to. It reminded me very much of a large country town like Bendigo or Ballarat near Melbourne. The population is around 75,000 people, but it is expanding. The weather was amazing, although it did not start off that well when we left on Saturday, by the time we reached Bend the sky was a beautiful blue, with very little cloud. It was a little cold in the evening, but that changed the next day.

The photographs below show a little bit of the trip, and some of the things we saw.

The mountain in the background is Mt Washington

This picture was taken on top of "Pilot Butte" a large Lava mound which overlooks Bend and the surrounding area.

This is in front of Mount Bachelor - another favorite destination for Skiers during winter.

How strange is this, here we are standing on a snow field in short sleeves, it was beautiful weather, but we were on SNOW!