Sisters and Bend - A Whole New World

And we struck off up the Oregon Trail.  Then our OXEN DIED!!  Ok, not really. But we were all headed toward territory none of us had explored before: the Pacific Northwest.  None of us had been to Oregon before.  We expected tree-huggers, hippies, fruits, and nuts.  We were a bit pleasantly surprised to find a lot of sane people in addition to the aforementioned motley crew of liberals.  After a rather boring drive through the desert side of Northern California and into Eastern Oregon, we noticed a subtle change.  Eastern Oregon began to give way to taller and taller foothills which separated long, flat, fertile valleys.  The beauty increased steadily as we approached the center of the state.  In the West, we had taken the least amount of Interstate.  Our serpentine route up the coast and into the heart of Yosemite required almost entirely state highways.  What a difference it makes,not only in terms of speed, but also in terms of what you see out the window.  These foothills joined up with a mountain range that is geologically connected to the Sierra Nevada.  The Cascades, however, differ profoundly from the mountains of the Sierra Nevada.  Much of the beauty in the Sierras was either carved by a glacier or happened naturally with tectonic movement. The Cascades announce their volcanic roots from the beginning.  Their perfect conical shapes, disrupted at the very top by a tangle of reaching rock, wretchedly barren, belies the glacier and volcanic influence in their development.  Their beauty if astounding, and we got to stay with our friend Katelyn Pay right in the middle of it all.  Sisters, Oregon is a resort town where many Oregonians go in the summer to vacation. Blanketed in snow in the winter, the summer meadows, streams, and mountains offer a beauty that I had not often heard advertised (read: never).  

KPay had arranged a couple surprises for us aside from the breath-taking beauty.  A graduate from our class, Cameron Wilkens, came out to hang out with us and see our concert.  Our concert was at an Episcopal Church in Sisters and had the three mountains which named the town as the backdrop to the altar.  It was a gorgeous country church with a good sound.  Afterwards, we chilled at Red Robin.  Waking up early the next morning, KPay led Keaton and I on a bike-riding/kayaking tour of the area around Black Butte Ranch.  We had to get up to Portland, but we were a little sad to leave all the beauty of the Three Sisters (Faith, Hope, and Charity are the names of the mountains) and their surrounding valleys.  But, in Portland (or just outside it), was waiting a dear friend and an area I had been longing to see for a long time.  :)  And thus we directed our Garmin to the house of Sims.  Pictured above is Mount Washington, the view just as we headed up to Portland.