It’s that time of the year again… Halloween is fast approaching and we need to buy some pumpkins. And this year we got to explore an Oregon pumpkin patch! After researching a few places, I found The Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie Island. It’s only about 30 minutes away from Portland, and offered a lot of fun activities in addition to picking out pumpkins. Read more »
A few weekends ago Daniel and I went apple picking! I was excited to take Daniel because he had never been before, poor guy. I was also stoked because while I have been before (grew up in Maine, after all), I hadn’t been in probably over 5 years (thanks to living in LA).
I did a little research and found three options: Draper Girls Country Farm, Sherwood Orchards, and Mountain View Orchards.
Sherwood Orchards was tempting because it was only 30 minutes away, but it looked a little small. Mountain View Orchards looked like it had a lot of activities in addition to apple picking, but it was the furthest and Daniel didn’t seem too keen on driving that far.
I ultimately chose Draper Girls because it had a beautiful view, they made their own fresh apple cider, and it was the 2nd closest to us. Read more »
This past weekend my boyfriend Daniel and I had the pleasure of visiting Sunriver, Oregon – thanks to our friend, whose aunt and uncle own a beautiful vacation home and were kind enough to let us have a short couples retreat with our friends!
Sunriver is about a 3 hour drive outside of Portland, and about 15-20 minutes outside of Bend. On our way we stopped in Welches, OR for dinner at The Rendezvous Grill. Beautiful patio, and great food with an emphasis on seasonal items and local products – which I love! However, I will say that if you are in a rush this may not be the best choice for you. We waited about a half an hour for our order to be taken, and a bit more than that for our food.
Since we didn’t make it to the house until almost midnight, most of our exploring happened the next day.
First stop: brunch at Chow in Bend, OR.
Another amazing meal in Oregon – I’ve lived here for a few months, and have yet to be disappointed in the quality and deliciousness of the food at, literally, every restaurant. Chow also has an emphasis on local products, and many of their produce come from their garden right outside the restaurant. Besides their tasty food, they also have grapefruit, mango, guava, and (of course) orange mimosas – any of which you can mix and match! I did half orange and half grapefruit!
Being the beer-loving folks that we are, we chose to mainly stay in Bend during our mini-vacation, as Bend is home to many craft breweries. There’s even an Ale Trail Map so you can be sure to check out all of them! We first stopped at Boneyard Beer where your first tasting is free and every tasting after is $1. There are no seats inside and no food, so this is definitely a good stop if you just want a few tastings or to pick up a growler.
Our 2nd and one of my favorite stops was Worthy Brewing Co.
As you can see, they grow their own hops right outside the brewery!
When we visited they had a special going on where we combined fresh hops into certain beers. Very cool to see how it changes the flavor!
We decided to share two flights so we could try all of their beers. Bonus: they have a bean bag toss outside! Which, I’m proud to say, I was victorious at!
3rd stop was Crux – sadly, I had to forego this one as I was the lightweight in the group. Lastly, we stopped at Brew Werks for dinner. This was my favorite for atmosphere – they had a large patio with a beautiful view. Again, I will say if you have somewhere to be this may not be the best choice, as this was one of the longest waits for food during the trip.
The next day, before heading home to Portland, our very last stop was the Sunriver Golf Resort. While we didn’t stay to play a round, I wanted to include this photo just to show how gorgeous it was here!
All in all we had a great time and can’t wait to return!
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