Oregon Part Five: Chow Boards Beer Canoe

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With The Sunriver Marathon behind us it was time to do some of the other events on our list.

Monday morning (Labor Day) we left our resort and headed to Bend. Today's plan was to go out for breakfast, rent paddle boards in the park, visit the remaining breweries on the passport, collect our prize from Visit Bend, and then (depending on the time) go back to the hotel and canoe, bike, visit the pool.

Breakfast this morning was at Chow. Dave lucked into finding this place while using Urbanspoon. Chow was in a residential area in an old house. It follows the sustainable/farm-to-table philosophies. There was a nice deck and patio area out front, with lawn chairs set up for guests waiting for tables. An outdoor bar was set up for morning favorites. We took a patio table and froze for the first twenty minutes until the sun hit our table. We ordered breakfast cocktails and some great entrees. Holly had the crab cake eggs benedict and Dave had the banana pecan french toast. Great food! The staff was friendly and the owner/chef checked in on us. We were also lucky enough to be there when the singer started. This is 9:30 in the morning. Nice touch and helped to set the mood for a relaxing breakfast/brunch. Thanks to him we established we were once again the odd visitors from Illinois.

We made it to Riverbend Park exactly at 10am, which was when the Sun Country Paddle Board rental sight was supposed to open. Apparently Labor Daywas the start of their fall hours with the new opening time at eleven. The kid showed up at 10:20 and we tried to con him out of an early rental. No luck. So we sat on a rock until 11am. The rental cost us $20 each for an hour. The Deschutes River was clear with lots of views to the bottom. We passed under a bridge and by rocky canyon walls. Lots of other people were out enjoying the park by kayaking, tube floating, paddle boarding, biking, and playing fetch with their dogs in the water. It was nice to actually paddle somewhere you didn't have to worry about clueless boaters and constant wake from skiers.

After all that work it was time for a beer. We drove over to 10 Barrel and the place was packed! Lots of folks taking advantage of their large patio on a nice day. Unfortunately we we still stuffed from breakfast so couldn't think about trying anything for lunch - too bad since it all sounded good. We were  in luck here with a couple dark beer choices. Sinister Black and the seasonal porter were right up our alleys and bargains at $4 each. Good news was our hotel had Sinistor on tap! We got our passport stamped and took off for the next stop.

The last passport location to hit was Silver Moon. They were in a re purposed building in the older industrial section of town. It had a little bit of that retro diner edge. We lucked into the fact that it was locals day so pints were $2.50 (Dave got the lowest IBU beer possible) and the 22oz bottle porter Holly had was $3.85. Combine those with a pork quesadilla and we were out of there with a $12 bill. Everything was really good and I'd consider a return visit there. With our last stamp collected we headed to the Visit Bend office.

Other than race items, we hadn't purchased any souvenirs yet. We spent $72 in the Visit Bend store. We collected our free Silipints for finishing the Ale Trail then bought a long-sleeve t-shirt, poster, regular pint glass, hydro flask, and sticker. Everything we bought was nice and represented our trip so far.

We already accomplished a lot today so why not go canoeing? We headed back to the resort and drove out to their marina. We rented a canoe for $65 so we could take a six mile trip down the Deschutes. We haven't canoed together in 18 years because the last outing resulting in an argument. Needless to say we were nervous of a repeat. Happy to report there were no fights. Just a nice trip where paddling was only necessary to keep you away from other boats and the shore. Dave sat in front to take pictures and video while Holly steered us along. We had a really nice time and this was the highlight of the trip. The scenery was gorgeous and totally different than what we get to see on a daily basis back home.

The resort had a pickup spot with vans ready to meet us and take us back to the marina. Before driving back to the room we stopped at Hola, a Peruvian restaurant by the marina, for a cocktail. Here's a quick video from Paddleboarding and canoeing:

Nothing else happened after this. We skipped the pool and biking. We ended up at the hot tub by our room with a couple of beers, followed by a visit to the resort's bar, The Owl's Nest, dinner at the main restaurant, then back to the nest. A very fun day!