After our day at the John Day Fossil Beds, we spent the night and half the next day in the lovely high-desert plateau city of Bend, Oregon – population in excess of 70,000. After all that hiking and driving, it was great to see a Starbucks again!
It was also great to stumble upon what has become my new favorite store, the World Market which stocks a fabulous collection of international foods. Ed and I nearly filled the car with treats, a number of which I’ve loved since childhood but are impossible to find locally, including lacies and stroop waafels. Translated from Dutch to English, I suppose that would be ‘syrup waffles’? Basically, they’re yummy cookie wafers filled with ooey-gooey syrup.
After perusing the lovely shops in the downtown core and scooping up some end-of-summer deals on Columbia clothing; we strolled through Drake Park, a popular outdoor public gathering place which fronts the Deschutes River at Mirror Pond. For the amount of geese present in the park and on the pond, the grass was surprisingly un-slippery, if you know what I mean.
Later, we enjoyed lunch at the Taj Palace Restaurant and Bar in downtown Bend. OK, ‘enjoyed’ is perhaps an overstatement about the place. Although the food was excellent, the service was downright awful. I’m glad that we were having the buffet, because other than ushering us to our seats and processing the payment, we were completely ignored.
Fortunately, that wasn’t indicative of the service in Bend. Staffers in other stores and restaurants we stopped at were prompt and friendly. Too bad we can’t say the same of the Starbucks staff at the Cascade Village Shopping Center who apparently don’t follow the basic ‘first come, first served’ rule.
No problem. With a tall low-fat, no-whip moccha in hand, I can forgive just about anything.
See our pictures of Bend, Oregon
See the full list of places that we visited during our Washington / Oregon / California road trip
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