One of my husband's childhood friends won't move back to Bend because he says it's too crowded; and this summer, for the first time, I understood what he meant.

I just thought I'd record that moment here. My husband says either I'm finally becoming a local, or else Baldface Lodge ruined me.

*

View from the top of Tumalo Mountain, where in winter many people "backcountry" ski and snowboard. It's a four-mile hike, and yet we encountered a family with kids about the same age as my children plus two families with infants in backpacks.

That's Bend for you!

(I say "backcountry" because Tumalo Mtn's just across the way from Mt. Bachelor, maybe 20 miles from town.)