Well, despite being minus a car, I’m in good spirits. Bend was quite relaxing, even though the plans changed a bit.
We got there pretty late on Friday, so we just made dinner at our condo. We were renting one at the Mount Bachelor Village, which was awesome. It was 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, a bed-couch thing, a kitchen, plus we got to use the amenities in the “village”, most of which ended up being the fabulous hot tubs and the free shuttle to Mount Bachelor.
Since we were very sore on Saturday due to that whole crashing into a cliff thing, we decided not to ski. Instead, we went on a little hike up a mountain someone like Mount Tabor that had views over the whole city. Unfortunately it was snowing and really windy, so all we could see was whiteness. But it was fun none the less, I definitely want to go back when there’s some amount of visibility. Then we hit up the High Desert Museum, which was pretty interesting, although expensive ($15 for a desert museum?). There wasn’t really anyone there, but there were some people dressed up in “era” clothing pretending to be pioneers in a log cabin that was outside in a little mini pioneer town. That was…cool….kinda creepy…but they gave us hot cider, so all was well. Then we wandered around the downtown for a little while, got some drinks, and ended up back at the condo and made some dinner there.
Next day me and Alex went up to Bachelor. I was so excited, first time skiing ever, sunny in Bend…but as we started up the mountain, a girl on her cell phone said into the phone “oh…it’s raining…the lift isn’t even running yet?…” So it didn’t look good. Although obviously one does not need a running lift for cross country. Then the rain started…got harder, and harder. Oh not so good. We went to the Nordic lodge, rented some skate skiis, and had our group lesson at 10:15am. It was only $50 for skiis, boots, poles, and an hour-long lesson, that ended up just being me and Alex. The rain though never let up. After a while, my hands were completely numb and yet also very much in pain. I got down a rather large hill which I was proud of, but by the end of the lesson, I was so cold and completely soaked through, I just had to go back.
I laid out all my gloves and coats by the big fire in the lodge and tried to stop crying due to the extreme pain my hands were in. I felt bad, as we had planned on skiing for a few hours. But most people seemed to be packing it up. Alex went back out for a while, and I managed to get almost completely dry, without any intention of heading back out into the wetness. When he got back we had some coffee, and I realized I never really got a chance to just ski, since the lesson was a lot of standing around. So I sucked it up, put on my half-dry gloves, and went out again in the rain, and there wasn’t a single person on the XC trails, which was kinda cool. I didn’t have to worry about running into anyone. 
I actually felt like I did pretty well, although slow. I’m not sure I will ever be a big skier, but I feel like I have to give it another chance at some point, since trying to ski is pretty much miserable for everyone.
We got into the hot tub immediately when we got back to the condo and relaxed there for a while, which was really awesome. It’s nice to just sit around, reading, and covered in warm blankets. Eventually we met up with the rest of the crew downtown, bar hopped a we bit, and watched Once at the McMenamin’s St Francis School. A great movie, by the way. Very sentimental, but in a really great way. Makes me feel like a complete loser for not touching music in a while.
After a big breakfast, we went on our way, getting a rental car in Redmond. We drove up a back way on 97 & 197 through Madras and The Dalles. It was actually awesome, I’d never been through that part of Oregon before, it was beautiful. And 100% sunny. All the while the mountain passes were all under winter storm warnings with chains required and white out conditions, which wouldn’t have worked anyway, since apparently rental car companies can’t give you chains, even when they’re required on the roads. I know, it’s crazy. Anyway, we stopped in Hood River for dinner, and then home to Portland. All in all, minus the the car thing, a great weekend!
