We love the city of Bend, Oregon, and we especially love hanging out with our good friends, Jennifer and Mike (Chet) Chesney.  I’ll never forget the time when the Chesneys told us that they were moving from Heber, Utah to Bend, some 5 or 6 years ago.  I remember asking myself “how on earth could Bend be a better place to live than Park City?”  Well, the Chesneys were right, Bend is an awesome place to live.  And that’s not necessarily because it’s “better” than Park City, it’s just different.  Bend is much larger than Park City, maybe 8 or 10 times the size, but it doesn’t feel that big.  Bend embraces the outdoor lifestyle that we love, and if that wasn’t good enough, then the experience of living there is amplified by its “beer culture”.  The city revolves around beer, and you can feel it everywhere.  Shockingly, we sort of like that feeling.  Even in Beer City USA, Portland, one doesn’t get that feeling, and one certainly doesn’t get it in any city or town in Utah.  Bend is rumored to have more breweries per capita than any other place on the planet, and at last count, has a whopping 22 breweries to explore and enjoy.   Too many breweries and not enough time…or was it?  Little did the Chesneys know when we skidded into town on November 1 that “Extra Large Size Beer Barrel” and “Medium Size Beer Barrel” would be doing their own exploring, and for an extended period of time.  Probably not what any of us had in mind, but it just “happened”.  We credit the Chesneys for their incredible hospitality, and we certainly value all that Bend has to offer, even beyond the beer.  All told, we spent exactly 14 days in Bend, so capturing all that happened over those 2 weeks is going to be a challenge, for sure.  But much like the “5 major food groups”, I think the best approach will be to categorize the experiences into the following activity groups:  the food; the beer; the fishing; the mountain biking; and the cultural entertainment.

Let’s start with the food.  We basically turned the Chesney kitchen into a hardcore episode of Iron Chef.  Jennifer was on fire with the dinners as she wowed us with her take on soul food…warm, spicy, and absolutely delicious.  The Lebanese tacos were stunning and the meatball stew was killer.  Mr. Breakfast, Chet, was killing it in the AM with his skillet meals…simply unreal, and great cures for the morning hangovers.  And his homemade sourdough was off the charts, again.  I’m still wondering why he didn’t make sourdough every day.  And then there was the Great Bend Pizza Cook-off.  Mike and I each made our favorite doughs, and then we altered cooking our pizzas on Mike’s pizza oven until we all couldn’t eat any more.  It was another better-than-restaurant-quality meal, and it was a blast cooking with a like-minded pizza aficionado.  I made my world-famous buffalo wings and rosemary-parmesan fries, at least they are world-famous in my mind.  I also made a couple smoked tri-tips roasts on the Traeger, a recipe that I discovered a few months ago and have been working on ever since.  And then there’s the very ethnic food that we had out on the town, all of which was simply amazing.  My personal favorite was the Northern Thai food at Wild Rose, which was probably the best Thai food that I have ever had.  We had Vietnamese takeout one night, as well as one of the largest pizzas anyone has ever seen…24 inches in diameter!  We had an awesome burger at Brother John’s and we had at least 2 versions of the Cubano sandwich.  We also visited a local sausage joint, and we had a blast sampling a bunch of authentic and exotic types of sausages, with beer, of course.  As I sit here and describe all of this food, several things cross my mind.  First, were we really only in Bend for 2 weeks?  Second, it is absolutely no surprise to me that I gained 10 pounds while in Bend.  Third,  it can be very dangerous when one assembles four “foodies” in the same place at the same time, and these 2 weeks were an appropriate example of just that.

The opportunities for beer in Bend are almost overwhelming, even for Extra Large Size Beer Barrel.  Every time we go back to Bend, there are new breweries popping up, and the pre-existing breweries seem to be constantly improving their spaces and their beer.  It’s amazing, and it’s one of the many reasons why we love this place.  My personal favorite is the beer at Ale Apothecary…totally unique and hand-crafted with nothing but the finer details.  Actually, I am glad AA is open only on the weekends, otherwise my wallet would have suffered irreversible damage.  Kirsten, thank you for making us feel at home, again.  The new Boneyard Brewing facility on the north end of town is stunning, and a testament to how well the beer culture is doing in Bend.  The food was great, and the beer was even better.  Crux Fermentation Project was finishing up an expansion of their facility when we were there, and they too have completely upped their game, which I wouldn’t have thought was even possible.  We even rode our bikes over to the famous Deschutes Brewery on a Sunday to watch cyclocross racing and drink beer, and it was nuts.  And then there’s the Growler Guys filling station located inside the Chevron gas station around the corner from the Chesney’s house.  Thirty-six beers and ciders on tap, at prices that were hard to believe.  Let’s just say that Extra Large Beer Barrel became GG’s best customer, very quickly.  To this day, I am still getting texts from them with very aggressive coupons toward growler fills, and somehow they seem to be stunned that I haven’t returned, and that profits are substantially down.  Okay, now that I just completed that summary, my 10 pounds of new  “winter weight”  may have also had something to do with the beer, just a wild guess.

The local fishing exceeded my expectations, for sure, and I even think Chet may have been a little surprised by how good it was.  Sure, we made the pilgrimage to the Deschutes with Mike’s friend, Caleb, and we promptly got skunked for steelhead, which was somewhat expected given it was late for the summer run.  We enjoyed the trip nonetheless, the time spent on the water, and the many miles that the three of  us walked in pursuit of the mighty chromer.  Great water, for sure, and only 1.5 hours from Bend.  I also did a solo run up to the John Day River to see if my luck would have changed, but it was much of the same, except for the water levels were critically low, and for the John Day, that equated to zero steelhead entering the river.  Also very nice water, but better fished when the fish are actually in the river.  Everything changed for the better when Mike and I made a trip up to the Fall River, a mere 30 minutes from the Chesney home.  The Fall is a spring creek, and with a hatchery supplement, it was just what Chet and I needed to reinstate our confidence.  Unbeknownst to us, the hatchery had just released 1,000 “trophy” rainbow trout to the river, and we happened to be in the right place at the right time, for a change.  What an amazing creek with unbelievably beautiful fish, many of which were nearly impossible to land on light tippets and tiny flies.  Once we figured out the lay of the land, Mike and I returned to the river 4 times for additional helpings of these beautiful fish.  And just to be clear, these are the types of trout that are measured in pounds, not inches, and the two of us had our way with dozens of pounds of fish over those 4 visits.  We even had time to refine our Tenkara skills, which made for an even more difficult task of landing one of these beasts.  The lesson learned was that we needed a much bigger net, or in my case, any net would have been better than no net at all.  This was crazy-good fishing, thanks Chet.  I can’t wait to go back.

The Chesney’s house is conveniently located within 2-3 miles of the famous Phil’s Trailhead, so one doesn’t have too many excuses on why they can’t go out and ride mountain bikes.  We managed to sneak in about 4 rides while we were there, which served to somewhat stave off any additional pounds from the food and beer intake.  I normally like to say that the beer drinking and eating that we do is offset by the calories that we burn on our mountain bikes, but we probably would have had to ride for at least 10 hours a day to win that battle.  Jenn, Maryjo, and Mike were all pretty disciplined about going for daily hikes with the puppies, Benz and Mercedes, but because I am not the hiking type, I spent most of those hours going back to Growler Guys for refills.  That’s just me taking another hit for the team.  You’re welcome.  Actually, some of us find that it’s easy to make fun of the fat guy, but when the fat guy bringeth the beer, no one seems to have a problem guzzling the fruits of his labor.  What a conundrum.  Anyway, the way I see it, refilling the growlers has to burn some calories, right?  JAH, any help?

After all the eating, beer drinking, fishing, and mountain biking, one would think that there’s no time left in the day, correct?  Wrong…we managed to expand our cultural horizons during our stay by grabbing a couple of movies and by watching comedy while at home base.  We went out to see two movies, Bohemian Rhapsody and El Royale.  While I am not generally a Queen fan, the team lured me out to see BR at the local mega-theater by telling me that there was delicious popcorn and draft beer to be had.  Huh?  Did you say “draft beer”?  Only in Bend can you get a 22-ounce sour beer with your popcorn, how awesome is that?  Suffice it to say that I was thrilled with this concept, and for the record, I thought the movie was very well-done.  I can actually listen to, and enjoy, an entire Queen song when I hear it now.  I credit the sour beer, but that’s just me.  The other film we saw was El Royale, and we saw it at the famous McMenamin’s pub and theater in downtown Bend.  Jennifer and Mike had spoken very favorably of this venue, and once again they were spot-on.  It was another match-made-in-heaven for me as we guzzled beer whilst watching this very entertaining film.  I was a little disappointed that we didn’t order the tater tots, but the popcorn was excellent, despite it not having been made with any butter.  What, no butter?  Correct, it was cooked in coconut oil, and the coconut oil imparted a very nice buttery flavor to the corn.  The calorie savings on the corn just meant I could have another beer, and that made me very happy.  Anyway, if you enjoy Tarentino-style films, go see ER.  It was excellent and right up my warped alley.  We also managed to watch a ton of comedy at home…Bill Burr, Jim Gaffigan, and Louis CK.  Speaking of warped, each one of these guys is distinctively warped in their own way.  I especially liked Bill Burr because he is a ‘button-pusher” on some pretty controversial issues to the point where you can almost hear the audience squirm in their seats.  I am a firm believer in living outside your comfort zone…in that respect, Bill Burr builds character, in a weird sort of way.  Check him out.

The night before we were getting ready to “head out of Dodge”, some knucklehead vandal thought it would be cool to break the most expensive side window on our van.  Chet so eloquently described it as “a total buzzkill”.  And he was spot-on again, as it was an emphatic end to such an enjoyable stay in this great little city with two great friends.  But much like Samuel L. Jackson’s character said in my favorite movie of all time, Pulp Fiction, “I’ve had some time to reflect on some recent things that have happened in my life. And before, where I would have popped a cap in your head for fucking with me, today I am simply going to let you walk out of here alive, go and be on with your business”.   I recited all that from memory, so I know I didn’t get the quote verbatim, but I think I got it close enough to illustrate my point.  My point is that I was really pissed, at the time, when that jackass broke our window, but I am now okay with it and I have moved on for at least a couple of reasons.  First, we got to spend a few more days in Bend with Jennifer and Mike.  Second, we met Ian from Action Van in Bend who was kind enough to replace our window at 7PM and serve us beer while he did (true story, they had a kegerator of Deschutes beer in their shop).   The Chesneys and Ian took a bad situation and made it okay, and I am grateful for that.  The moral of the story is that good people far outnumber the bad, and this was a clear example of that.  Beyond all that, Ian’s company makes a great retractable bed system for Sprinter vans (which we would have never known absent our window having been broken), and it’s only a matter of time before we return to his shop to have one installed in our van.  Of course, we’ll drink beer while he does it, but only if that makes Ian happy.  Thanks, Jennifer and Mike, for your supreme kindness and hospitality during our visit.  You guys are rockstars.  And thanks, Ian, for helping us out on a moment’s notice.  You, too, are a rockstar.  So there you have it…we defintiely bent, but we did not break, and we will live to Bend again!!!  Cheers!