Living cruising the seas (Part Two)

So what pushes so many to spend almost as much time (if not more) on a cruise ship than at home? Many retirees mention the same advantages, no cooking, cleaning, change of scenery without packing or unpacking, safety and convenience plus excellent opportunities to socialize. 

As you can see, a touch of laziness goes a long way! For our neighbors, visiting dozens of destinations doesn’t seem to make any difference and repeatedly packing and unpacking is not even a factor. For couples, it can be an especially relaxing lifestyle because neither person has to plan every day's activities, like “What’s for dinner” or cleaning up the roof gutters. 

Of course, there are a few downsides to that sea life. Even on a huge ship, internet access can be slow or expensive (although it has improved greatly with satellite services). Medical emergencies could end up being costly and in some cases might require expensive evacuation. Cabins are relatively small, buffet food never changes, so it quickly becomes tiring, and entertainment never fails to become repetitive on a long stay away.

For those who are more curious than our neighbors, ports only provide a brief glimpse of a destination. Then, long cruises can become surprisingly expensive unless one is very disciplined about onboard purchases as everything is engineered to separate passengers from their money. This said, the economics of this lifestyle may surprise many. 

For retirees who have sold their house or rent a modest apartment, cruising isn't always as extravagant as it sounds. For instance, the cheapest ocean cruises start around $50 to $80 per person, per night (before taxes and port fees) for interior cabins. The lowest per-person, per-day rates are found on shorter 3- to 4-night sailings, repositioning cruises, and older ships from mainstream fleets like Carnival Cruise Line, MSC Cruises, and Royal Caribbean. 

So if we conservatively said $100 per person and per day, we’d get to a $36,500 cost year round which would include lodging, all meals, utilities, housekeeping, transportation between ports, entertainment, fitness facilities and many activities. This would be hard to beat for a single person renting an apartment anywhere in the US and while $73,000 for a couple might be over the actual cost, it still might be justifiable on account of the affordable services and entertainment received. 

If we compare this with maintaining a home, paying property taxes, insurance, utilities, groceries, dining out, and taking occasional vacations, the difference may be smaller than many people expect. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Now is this lifestyle a growing trend? It would seem that way as the population of healthy retirees has grown, and cruise lines now actively cater to repeat customers with loyalty programs, extended voyages, and even "world cruises" lasting three to six months. 

Some newer itineraries are designed specifically for people who want to treat the ship as a temporary home rather than simply a vacation. This would never work for us as life on a boat feels claustrophobic, but many people who love to do nothing, and never imagined spending months at sea, discover that the combination of comfort, variety, and social interaction suits their retirement remarkably well. 

What about you? 

Living cruising the seas (Part One)

A few days ago we gave a couple of retired neighbors a ride to the airport, as they were flying to the Pacific Coast to catch a cruise. They told us that they spend almost half of their time sailing on large cruise ships with climbing walls, swimming pools and all kinds of amenities and entertainment. They don’t care where the ship sails, where it stops. 

What only counts for them is getting a good (cheap) deal, so anything goes as long as they’re housed and fed. Even though they’re rich they’re also extremely cheap. We could wonder if that practice is widespread, but after searching a bit, I found out that it’s more common than we think. 

Among retirees with sufficient income, spending months each year on cruise ships has become a legitimate lifestyle. While our neighbors' "almost half the year" sounds extraordinary, it’s far from unique. There are even people who live aboard cruise ships year-round. Several factors have made this possible, starting with available time. 

Once retired, many people no longer need to fit travel into two or three weeks of vacation and cruises can be surprisingly cost-effective. If someone books long voyages, lives in an inexpensive home, and takes advantage of loyalty discounts, the daily cost may compare favorably with maintaining a house and paying separately for hotels, restaurants, entertainment, and transportation. 

Everything is included. Meals, housekeeping, shows, pools, fitness centers, organized activities, and transportation from port to port are all bundled together. They also meet the same people repeatedly. Frequent cruisers often develop a circle of friends and even coordinate future voyages together. In addition medical services are available. 

Care on cruise ships meets basic standards for stabilization and minor illnesses, but it’s not free, nor cheap, and not directly covered by US Medicare in international waters. Patients are required to pay out of pocket upfront for all onboard medical services, and Medicare will only reimburse you if the ship is in a US port or no more than six hours away from one. While these services are not substitutes for hospitals, they provide reassurance for older travelers. 

Now, how common is that practice? Of course, the vast majority of retirees do not spend months at sea, but avid cruisers spending 60–120 nights a year aboard is fairly common. Spending 150–200 nights annually, like our neighbors, is uncommon but certainly not rare within cruise enthusiast communities. 

Tomorrow, we’ll see some other aspects of this lifestyle, so if you want to know, stay tuned!

A healthy knee hits the ground

To celebrate May Day, as we arrived late afternoon in San Francisco. I didn’t have a better idea than raising my glance to admire some Victorian architectural detail on a home while we were walking one of the city’s many steep hills. I hit something with my right foot, lost my balance and fell right on my left knee. 

When this kind of fall happens, the pain is always intense. In fact falling on one’s knee can cause a serious injuries like patella fractures, ligament or meniscus tears, and severe contusions, often leading to immediate swelling, bruising, and inability to bear weight. In my case there was a bloody bruise over the knee cap, but the beast I am kept on walking up and down the hilly streets. 

I felt okay when I went to bed but woke up at midnight with some intense pain, particularly in the back of my knee. I meditated, took no drug and eventually went back to sleep. The next morning my knee was both stiff swollen, I took a pain killer and decided to participate in a rather long 8 miles walk to and through Golden Gate Park. Strong at first, the pain gradually dissipated through the day and I thought I was “saved”. 

The night was okay, but the next morning my knee’s pain and stiffness were intense. I swallowed another painkiller and followed wife and daughter on a hike over Marin County, to Mount Tamalpais known locally as “Mount Tam”, through a mountain bike trail. 

Gradually, the horrible pain disappeared and by the end of the day and 6.5 miles later, it felt okay. From that day one, there was pain in the morning that quickly went away as soon as there was activity and blood circulation. 

Had I listened to my body I would have stayed home, put an ice pack on my knee, elevated my leg and probably would have suffered much more. All this to show that when there is nothing broken, activity that promotes blood circulation is a better remedy than laying down!

Marin County, California

I’ve always had a weak spot for Sausalito and Marin County that both sit North of San Francisco. Not only do the views of the City from that shore are unique as well as stunning, but they offer a significant relief from the hustle bustle of the city life. 

I’ve stopped in Sausalito many times over the years, and it‘s always been the spot where I could marvel at the wonderful city across the Golden Gate bridge.

If I were so lucky to live in San Francisco, would I live in that City or in its opposite neighbor across that bridge? 

Yes, most definitely! I would honor my weak spot I alluded to in the opening paragraph of this blog. Would I’d be happy there? Quite possibly! Would it ever happen in my lifetime? Why not after all…

In the meantime, our daughter who lives in San Francisco is fully enjoying an incredible view that is totally one of a kind!

San Francisco, the progressive city

Today, our daughter guided us to a complete walking tout of San Francisco. Solely walking maybe not, but we’ll return to this. Our morning walk began at the San Francisco Golden Gate Park that at over 1,000 acres is larger than NYC's Central Park. 

This iconic spot includes attractions like the Japanese Tea Garden, San Francisco Botanical Garden, and Conservatory of Flowers. The longer afternoon walk took us to the Embarcadero another mandatory place for any City visitor, located at the water edge, followed with a delightful dinner at Dasha, a Russian restaurant. 

Returning home was the main attraction though as we boarded a driver-less Google-Waymo taxi (see video below). These are available since 2021 and while they were 300 in operation two years ago, there are now 800 of them being made available to the public. 

It’s that car which took us back up the hill to our daughter’s charming apartment with expansive views of the San Francisco city center and East Bay.

The Waymo ride was a first for us that comforted us that self driving cars will soon be the norm for baby boomers that otherwise would no longer be able to drive, but instead will get a salutary extension through AI technology! 

Cruising up the Pacific Coast

We’ve driven California Route 1 for the first time from North to South in 2022 and on May 1 of 2026 we did it again from South to North. It’s important to note that California’s Highway 1 through Big Sur fully reopened on January 14, 2026, following a major three-year closure caused by severe landslides and roadway collapses that began in early 2023. 

The closure, spanning roughly 90 miles, was one of the longest in its history, with crews repairing damage at sites like Paul's Slide and Regent's Slide. 

This time it wasn’t as spectacular as we were driving on the hill side of the route instead of enjoying more of the seaside views, but was still as exciting. Traffic was light, and the morning for in many past took away some of the beauty of that drive. 

Still, the entire drive was never boring, which goes a long way in saying that California is really a gorgeous state. 

We made it to San Francisco late afternoon after we climbed the hilly streets of the neighborhood where our daughter lives. We were delighted to see her and to personally deliver her automobile in excellent condition. 

That evening as we were walking I just just stumble and fell on my left knee, as I was looking at some building up above. At the time, I simply hoped it would be alright. 

We were delighted that we made it in one piece after another 1,250 miles (2 000 km) drive. As for me, the driver, I was glad the trip was over!

From the Alabama Hills to the sea…

Alabama Hills like the ones found in Lone Pine, California, between the small town and the towering Sierra mountain chain.

The Alabama Hills are a range of hills and unique rock formations that we visited on Thursday morning and have been for a very long time a popular filming location for television and movie productions, especially Westerns set in an archetypally rugged, isolated setting. 

Why the out-of-place name “Alabama?” Because the nearby hills were named for the CSS Alabama, a Confederate warship deployed during the American Civil War. When news of the ship's exploits reached prospectors in California sympathetic to the Confederates, they named many mining claims after the ship, and the name came to be applied to the entire range. 

The place became an ideal place for Hollywood to shoot films. The first known movies to be filmed there are the lost films Water, Water Everywhere and Cupid, the Cowpuncher, both shot in 1919 and released in early 1920. 

Since then, hundreds of movies have been filmed there. After that it was a long, scenic, turning, twisting, scary-narrow, with few guard rail protection and a never ending mountain road across to Backersville, followed by a tamer itinerary to the Pacific with plenty of agriculture and oil drilling to complete the scene. 

The Pacific Coast would be where our journey would stop for the day as we ran out of continent, in Cambria, a small coastal town on Route 101. A full day of driving, sightseeing and fun.

One additional National Park

We have seen many American National Parks and without falling into a "collecting habit”, it’s always tempting to add an extra one to the list. That’s precisely what I did this time by visiting Death Valley National Park to our personal list. 

Not that I ever had good things about that place, but because it happens to be one of the favorites from French visitors and I wanted to know what the redeeming values of the place do to a Gallic crowd. So, outside of Zabriskie Point and the Sand Dunes, I wasn’t impressed. As a result, I still don’t understand why my countrymen are so infatuated with that Park. 

I suspect it’s because in July 1966, a French adventurer and former paratrooper named Jean Pierre Marquant, then aged 28, successfully hiked over 100 miles through Death Valley in extreme, record-breaking summer temperatures ranging from 100 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit, a feat many experts thought would kill him. This factoid must have made a searing impression on the minds of the French tourists. 

We ended that second day on the road in Lone Pine, in California. Founded in the 1860s as a supply hub for gold and silver mines, Lone Pine was originally a rowdy frontier town. It was decimated by a massive earthquake in 1872. 

Later, it became "Hollywood’s West" as the primary filming location for hundreds of classic Westerns in the Alabama Hills. Today, the economy is driven by tourism, acting as the gateway to Mount Whitney (highest peak in the lower 48 (at 14,505 feet or 4,421 meters) and the Alabama Hills. 

It should thrive on hikers, outdoor enthusiasts, and film history buffs. One may wonder if local services, mining/quarrying, and accommodations can support the community, alongside a notable percentage of government workers? Still, at least to me, the town seems to be slowly dying as it seems incapable of capitalizing on its incredibly beautiful mountain background.

Cruising to Alaska (day 8)

Our ship returned to Seattle early, around 6:00 am. We grabbed a last breakfast, vacated our cabin and began the tedious disembarkation of 4,000 passengers. We were broken into groups and had to wait in one of the public lounges until our luggage tag color was called. 

Overall, we enjoyed the experience, but were disappointed by what we didn’t see when the Captain decided to turn around on day 4 without any good reason or credit! In truth we realized that we didn't get what we came for, namely seeing beautiful Alaska landscapes. We came to the conclusion that these cruises are more hype than picturesque itineraries. 

We felt that cruises are on a mission to separate the guests from their money (excursion and drinks are excessively priced), create an addiction for this form of leisure travel, and inserting all kinds of opportunities to spend more money in their casino, their huge jewelry and watch stores and in their art gallery. 

This amounts to huge sums of money, consider this, while the global cruise industry will be getting close to the 60 billion dollar mark in 2025 : for the full year 2024, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. reported record revenue of $9.48 billion (up 11% from 2023) and a GAAP net income of $910.3 million (up 448% from 2023). 

The company also saw a strong increase in its Adjusted EBITDA, which grew 32% to a record $2.45 billion, and significantly improved its Net Leverage to 5.3 times. Definitely not your favorite charity! All this to say that one experience was fine, but we don’t feel the urge to do it again… 

We then boarded a shuttle to Seattle airport in Tacoma, left 30 minutes late, flew by Mt. Rainier and landed in Salt Lake at the remote Alaska Air concourse where it took us 30 minutes to walk back to the curb and catch a cab home. At long last, we were done with the cruise, its routine, its claustrophobic ambiance and ready and happy to reclaim our home!

Cruising to Alaska (day 7)

Just the day before, the sea turned rougher and we could hear the ship creak everywhere, it move a bit more, but not excessively. We had begun to sail into the wide open Pacific Ocean and we could feel it. That day would be sailing until we reach our destination, Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.  

As we were having breakfast, my wife mused about the kind of people that surrounded us. It makes sense as 74% of Americans are classified as being obese or overweight. As you might have expected, we were wondering what that ratio was on cruise ships, but there was apparently no study conducted on that category of people. 

Suffice simply to say as my wife offered, that a cruise ship gives us a glimpse into what could be the picture of a luxury version of a seniors’ long term care facility! Interestingly enough, we attended a presentation on the theme, and were served stats about 10,000 meals served and 550 baguette baked daily. The afternoon we were treated to yet another “fake” Beatles show under the Beatlemania theme. 

We both thought, they were pretty good, but perhaps were we now getting convinced by repeated exposure to their quality? That evening we had an excellent dinner at La Cucina, another excellent specialty restaurant and around 8pm the ship was anchored in Victoria, Canada until about midnight, that gave us a chance to walk into a part of Trump’s 51st state of the USA  from 8:00 pm to close to midnight.

The city, that’s also the capital of British Columbia is compact, well-lit, and beautifully walkable, especially around the Inner Harbour. We walked from cruise terminal at Ogden Point, walked along the Dallas Road waterfront trail toward the Inner Harbour, enjoyed views of the Olympic Mountains and passing ferries. 

Then we passed through James Bay, strolled through this quiet, historic neighborhood with charming homes and gardens and arrived at the Inner Harbour. 

There, we could admire the Fairmont Empress Hotel, lit up at night, walk past the British Columbia Parliament Buildings, glowing with thousands of lights and then ventured into the heart of the city at night, we watched street performers and musicians, crossed the Johnson Street Bridge for views of the harbor, then loop back via Government Street, lined with boutiques and pubs. 

We got a great taste of Victoria’s elegance, history, and coastal charm, and were ready to return to the ship…

Cruising to Alaska (day 6)

If you don’t like rain, don’t come to Ketchikan! In fact rain was pouring that day, so we weren’t so sure at first if it was worth our while to walk out of the cruise ship. 

After enough hesitations we poke our noses out and after going through the gangway that took us to “terra firma” we ended up in an old sawmill turned into a Native’s shopping mal where all the stuff shown was not only priced attractively, but was discounted 50% as the end of the season was around the corner. 

After buying a few hats for ourselves, we even bravely decided to board the shuttle bus to town under a heavy rain. The town of Ketchikan didn’t look that much and the beating rain did make it look much better so we decided to return with plenty of time left before lunchtime. 

The rain stopped as we left Ketchikan (of course) and the afternoon was a rather boring navigation between islands with strictly nothing exciting to see. 

At night, we treated ourselves to “Jersey Boys” a fabulous show about the life, success and tribulation of Frankie Valla and The Four Seasons a well-written and beautifully choreographed Broadway Production. 

Just perfect! Following that, we had a light dinner in the otherwise super large Manhattan restaurant that can seat more than one thousand people.

The largest dining room we’ve ever experienced…

Cruising to Alaska (day 4)

We didn’t have much time as we hit Juneau at 6:30 am and had to be back in the ship by 1:30pm. Further, we kind of woke up late under threatening skies, so we contented ourselves with a visit of Alaska’s capital.

Local merchants had just started the end of season’s sale and stores were busy with everything at 50% off. We managed to walk from the ship and return, and went all the way to the nondescript looking capitol building, conspicuously sans dome, in a city with a multitude of street moving straight up into the mountain. 

We found a series of interesting totem poles, all with a story and a complete explanation of what we were looking at. We didn’t have time for an excursion to Mendenhall Glacier. We had planned for helicopter or seaplane tout but the weather wasn’t making it worth the money asked by the various operators, so we returned to the ship for a late lunch. 

Later, that afternoon, we were supposed to explore the Endicott Arm, a fjord with cascading glacier, but half-way into it, the ship’s Captain decided to turn around as the abundant floating ice was, in his judgment to dangerous for venturing deeper into the gorge. Too bad. 

At night, we went to see a tribute Beatles band called “The Beatles Experience” from Argentina, that was just okay, including a low-key, right-handed Paul McCartney that had a tough time assuming that role…

Cruising to Alaska (day 3)

At about 10:30 am as our ship stopped in Sikta, Alaska, where we had just stopped half a hour before. The weather was overcast and after waiting in a long, meandering line, we boarded a bus to town, 15 minutes away.

We got there around 11:30 am and had a chance to visit the area until about 5:30 pm, that day. Our first walk along the fishing port took us to  Sitka National Historical Park and Totem Park where we could immerse ourselves in the rich Tlingit history and culture by walking among the collection of totem poles, exploring the museum exhibits with plenty of old photos and artifacts. 

This was followed by a walk into the nearby scenic trails through the Tongass National Forest. We also walked past a hatchery where the workers were killing salmons that were returning by climbing a “ladder” to their place of birth thus completing the 2 year life cycle before being separated from their eggs. 

Around noon we returned to town to eat lunch as we grew hungry, couldn’t find any place we liked to eat and settled for a small, busy Chinese eatery where we could only find some fish and chips to soothe our big hunger. All along the rain was threatening but never really fall hard enough to bother us. 

Then, in the afternoon, we had booked a tour to visit the so-called, Fortress of the Bear, a place were we were guaranteed to see these big guys in what really was a bear rescue facility where you we saw brown and black bears in their natural environment from a covered viewing platform. It was a bit further out from downtown, but worth the trip. 

Then our guide took us to see a river filled with salmons swimming  upstream to spawn and that was quite a spectacle for us to observe! We concluded our very busy day with an excellent Asian food dinner and “Icons”, a great show showcasing hits of 80s and an excellent choreography! 

Cruising to Alaska (day 2)

Today was a day totally at sea, under gray skies and with very little to see outside. We attended a presentation about Alaska and what we were going going to see during the next days, then the captain and two of his officers talked about the ship and about their work. 

The afternoon we toured the ship from top to bottom and realized that the main activity, a day like today was for the passengers (most of them overweight) was to drink,  eat and accomplish very little to try to balance their calories intake trough physical activities. 

At least we climbed the stairs from floor 6  to 17 a couple of time! In the evening, for the first time, the main floors where restaurants and entertainment are situated felt a bit crowded, but that was okay. As I mentioned, the ship crew is 1,700 people strong with very few Americans on board. 

Most of the officers are Europeans or Latino and 85% of the staff is Filipino. This clearly brings up the gap between the haves and the haves not, masters and servants, something we found awkward to say the least. 

Since we notice that the majority of the passengers were white, with a fair number of blacks and Asians, it would be ideal to have a crew mirroring the ethnic groups of the passengers. 

This left us with the impression that the Filipinos are exploited and are forced to be very nice, etc, and this made us very uncomfortable. 

Later in the day, we wanted to see a Beatle’s re-enactment show but it was mobbed and instead we watch the band Siglo performing in a common open area… 

Cruising to Alaska (day 1)

This would be our first cruise on a huge ship (4002 passengers plus 1700 crew members), so there was some palpable excitement when we saw it as the bus took us from the Seattle airport to the port of that city where the ship was berthing. 

Built in Germany and started in 2018, the ship took 4 years to be completed at a cost of of $1 billion (today’s similar boats will run over $2 billion!) 

There might be a dozen ships larger than that one in the world. As we got onboard, we spend the rest of the afternoon exploring a few of the many areas areas of the behemoth, got a tiny bit familiarize with its systems and other idiosyncrasies that consumed both my wife and I. 

We were pooped when we fell asleep!

Rental car booking through Costco

Prior to leaving for our West Coast jaunt, I booked my rental car through the Costco Travel website as I always do when we travel domestically. We were going to pickup the auto at San Francisco airport and dropped off at the en of our trip in Portland, Oregon. 

I selected a rental car from Avis for an all inclusive cost of $374.82. For reasons I can't explain, I never got a Costco confirmation number but did receive one from Avis reflecting the $374.82 price. 

When I showed up at the San Francisco airport Avis counter I was told that my cost would be in excess of $1,150 three times more than the cost I was quoted and was expecting. I wasn’t pleased, but had to take the car and give my credit card to satisfy the full amount. 

I had not even bothered clicking on the hyperlink shown on the document below the estimated price of $374.82 that said “See full rental summary”, assuming this was the detailed calculation arriving at the cost. 

Obviously, the final $1,133.40 total bill was grossly out of proportion with the $374.82 I was expecting to pay. 

After quite a bit of back-and-forth with Costco and Avis, I was finally able to resolve the problem in my favor upon returning home. This said, I didn’t let that incident cast a shadow on our vacation and was very good in compartmentalizing that bothering issue!

Back home, finally!

An intense road trip comes to an end there is no better feeling than making it home! 

Spending one night in a different town ended up being a lot of work and anything but restful. 

Glad to find ourselves at home again, our own stuff, an internet that works and just a few pieces of snail mail waiting for us. 

Did I stay that our lupines just waited for and were all blooming?

Hood River, a watersport Mecca

On Tuesday morning the air was still cool when we left Government Camp, and we headed towards the kite and windsurfing community of Hood River where the wind blow fiercely over the Columbia River. 

Very soon, we got an eyeful of riders of all abilities contending with the strong wind blowing at counter-current from the gorge. 

We did a long hike and ran into Rob, from Park City’s Mountain Top, a neighbor in fact, who said he new a few ski biz “celebrity” and that’s when I heard my name, albeit a tad butchered.  When asked, he confirmed it was me he was talking about and remembered me making fast, wide sweeping turns down Thaynes. Funny… 

In the afternoon we stopped at Multnomah Falls, Oregon’s tallest at 620 feet, picnicked at the base and hiked to the top and had fun while passing out of breath or exhausted hikers, and telling them “Better hurry, Elon Musk is giving away his left over $1 million dollar checks at the top!” 

For the most past this was a great icebreaker and elicited many comments like this one: “Only French people would think of lies like that one!” Soon we reached Portland and stayed downtown at the Mark Spencer Hotel. 

As we walked around the area to spot a restaurant for dinner, we were shocked by two things. One was the emptiness of the downtown area on a work day and by the number of vagrants and homeless sleeping on the sidewalks. 

Even though the room was very nice, the bed super comfy and the linen luxurious, the hotel had zero internet and that didn’t work well for me as it was the first place in 6 nights that was so bad, in spite of the front desk employee denying the problem.

Timberline Lodge’s magic

Another day filled with a tons of small events. After breakfast, we returned and walked alongside the Deschutes River this time in the opposite direction and again, had another great walk. 

The temperature was toasty, even more than the day before, but we managed the extra degrees quite well. We then brave a more serious heat as we climbed the Pilot Butte, an extinct cinder cone offering a 360-degree panoramic view of Bend, its surrounding high desert and the Cascade Range, including Mt. Bachelor, the Three Sisters, Mt. Jefferson, Black Butte, and in the far distance, Mt. Hood. 

After that, we drove through Sisters a charming western town, had lunch there and proceeded driving North towards Mt. Hood. Before getting there I got stopped by an Oregon State Trooper for driving at 50 in a 35 mph zone. This had not happened to me in my 20 years of retirement! The officer was cool and let me go just with what I badly needed: a warning. 

Later we made it to the Timberline Lodge, at the foot of Mt. Hood, a place I hadn’t seen anymore since the 90s. When we got there, there was very little activity and barely any skier in sight, not ski teams for sure. 

Skiing was still on, skiers could get down to the lodge in spite of a warm 75 degrees temperature, a lot at an elevation of 6,000 feet!

Bend's crazy growth!

Sunday was a bit more relaxed as we began the day early in the cool morning air, walking along Medford’s Bear River. We did one way on the seedy side of the small river where homeless folks camp and returned on the groomed portion of the course, on a paved multi-users. 

The festival of trees continued as we drove out of Medford and all the way to Bend, with a huge variety of trees from redwood to lodge pole pine and Oregon pine. In between we stopped at Winco for groceries and discovered a huge warehouse style grocery store that sell a pretty good French baguette for just $1.98! 

We reached Crater Lake in the middle of nowhere between Medford and Bend and enjoyed the sight and the snow that was still there in impressive depth. 

The worst of Bend was the sushi place we had dinner at, while the best part of the day was my rediscovery  of the city of Bend that has grown into a population of 105,000!

The best part though is the Deschutes River surrounding that seem to be the central active playground of the locals. Beautiful, vibrant and exciting! That in of itself is a worthwhile reason to visit that mountain city!