Summertime Is Spritzer Time!
After polling dozens of mixologists around the country, “Better Homes & Gardens” magazine predicted back in May that the drink of summer 2023 would be the Hugo Spritz. Other food/drink publications followed suit and I concur! I enjoyed my first Hugo Spritz, a cousin to the popular Aperol Spritz, on a sunny patio in Tuscany…
LISTEN: Celebrating Juneteenth with Kenny Adams 🎧
Kenny Adams is a writer, designer, film maker, and a father. As Executive Director of The Father’s Group, Kenny has bolstered and strengthened The Ujima Youth Program, developed the Night Out With The Father’s Group series, developed and administered The Father’s Group Film Festival featuring his own documentary, Blend, in which he interviews many Black…
Rice Lagers are the Crushable Beers for Float Season
In the lager world, we’ve got German pils and Czech pilsners. You’ll now find “Italian pilsners,” which mean they’ve been dry-hopped, something the Germans and other classicists would never do. Then there’s your Mexican lager, which actually has its roots in Vienna lager. I even found a handful of Polish pilsners in Market of Choice’s…
Dogwood Cocktail Cabin Will Keep Your Senses Spinning
Doug and Phoebe Pedersen are a creative duo also known as the owners of the funky and shabby-chic Dogwood Cocktail Cabin, which is also my current favorite underground jazz and DJ venue with delicious and worldly late night food. Food past 10pm in Bend! Can you believe it?! And the chillest tunes. The brick cabin,…
Juneteenth is Coming
Juneteenth, an amalgam of “June” and “19,” marks the day in 1865 when slaves in Galveston, Texas, were alerted that they’d been freed from slavery – and had actually been freed two years prior. Today, Juneteenth is a celebration day and a day of remembrance, celebrated nationwide, including in Central Oregon. We sat down for…
El Condado de Deschutes es el último en la zona centro de Oregon en estudiar las restricciones del tiempo, lugar y el modo de acampar
Dos de tres de los comisionados del Condado de Deschutes votaron para proseguir con las enmiendas al código que prohibiria que las personas acampen en propiedad pública. El alguacil Shane Nelson, del Condado de Deschutes, propuso una campaña para prohibir acampar y dijo que le permitiría a su departamento imponer zonas de no acampar y…
Wildflowers Abound for Early Summer Hiking
The snow has thawed, the highway is open. It’s time to dust off those La Sportiva boots and get your day bag packed; summer hiking season has arrived. Welcome! We’ve been waiting for you. And with all the additional precipitation we grumbled about this spring, the reward to now reap is wildflowers – lots of…
June Mailbag
Q: What is the deal with the median sale price in Bend jumping up $76,000 in the month of May? A: That’s a great question and reminds me of a famous quote my statistics professor quoted: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” This quote is somehow credited to Mark Twain…
Serving Up Smiles and Slamming Success
In a world where ball sports reign supreme, there’s a sport that’s been quietly gaining momentum, bringing together people of all ages and skill levels. It’s a game that blends the finesse of badminton, the agility of ping pong and the strategic intensity of tennis. Welcome to the wonderful world of pickleball. According to the…
Floating the New and Improved Riverbend Park
Despite living in Bend for more than two years, I haven’t done something most tourists here accomplish in a couple days: float Riverbend Park. The closest I’ve gotten is floating past the Old Mill and down the rapids. Two weeks ago my editor tasked me with doing some outdoor summer activity, so I decided to…
Overnight on a Bike
A few years back I went to a bike touring workshop at The Gear Fix, hosted by two awesome femmes who’ve pedaled everywhere from Mexico to the Great Divide. They were passionate about showing others how relatively simple and freeing it can be to ride bikes for days on end. I bought my first piece of…
Buzzing About Wildflowers and Pollinators
The Wildflower Show and Pollinator Festival will showcase regional flowering plants and native pollination species at the Sunriver Nature Center & Observatory. The family-friendly festival takes place Saturday, June 24 from 9am-3pm. “We try to take a look at the biodiversity of the high desert ecosystem and showcase that for people. When you look around…
A Songwriter Sunset Session
Joel Chadd, Alicia Viani and Erin Cole-Baker will serenade Central Oregon with acoustic sets and storytelling lyrics as the sun goes down on Saturday, June 24, outside of The Commons Cafe & Taproom in the Mirror Pond Plaza. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring concert-style folding chairs. The idea for the Songwriter Sunset Session series was…
Horoscope Week of June 15, 2023
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Among her many jobs, my triple Gemini friend Alicia has worked as a deep-sea rescue diver, an environmental activist, a singer in a band, a dog food taster, an art teacher for kids, and a volunteer at a sleep lab researching the nature of dreams. Do I wonder if she would…
Letters to the Editor 06/15/2023
Guest Opinion: Restoring Wolves Wolves, a native species to Oregon and once common throughout the state, were eradicated by the 1940s in a deliberate attempt to wipe the species out of existence. Reintroduction efforts in Yellowstone and central Idaho have helped lay the groundwork for recovery across the West, but there’s still a long way…
Lots of Housing Units Approved
Soon, thousands more people may be living within walking distance of the Old Mill and downtown Bend. The Bend City Council approved a 1,600-unit housing and commercial development on 32 acres of land that was formerly a particle board plant. The master plan also includes a 180-room hotel, office space and retail along “linear meandering…
Strike Averted
On June 8 the Oregon Nurses Association and St. Charles announced they’d reached a tentative agreement on a contract for the next three and a half years. ONA submitted a 10-day strike notice to the hospital system on June 1, meaning the Bend campus could’ve lost nearly 1,000 registered nurses by June 12. Negotiations lasted…
County Code on Camping Proposed
Deschutes County Commissioners voted two to one to move forward with code amendments that would restrict people from camping on publicly owned property. Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson proposed the camping ban, saying it would allow his office to enforce no-camping zones and a two-week limit on campsites, similar to the federal government’s regulations on…
We Need to Address White Supremacy
Two racially charged incidents inside the same week show us that while Central Oregon is changing demographically and culturally in the direction of more diversity and inclusion, not everyone is happy about it and not everyone is on board. Oregon’s long history of Black exclusion laws and its quest for a “white utopia” might seem…
A Holistic Approach to Hypothyroidism
Hypothyroidism, a very common health condition caused by an under-performing thyroid gland, affects approximately five out of every 100 Americans. This condition affects women more frequently than men, and often arises very insidiously with an onset of symptoms that can elude diagnosis until a physician orders the appropriate labs to detect the cause. Like so…
Bend Local Wins Bear Grylls
The owner of Good Drop Wine Shop, Sarah Worley, not only survived the challenges on Bear Grylls’ newest show, “I Survived Bear Grylls: Going Commando,” but was the winner on her episode of the show. The episode was filmed in November of 2022 and is now available to watch via TBS. We chatted with Worley…
Meals to Look Forward to While Hiking
Are you tired of pulling a smushed PB&J from your bag? Are you finding yourself choking down bland oatmeal or trying to eat enough protein bars to fill your morning belly? Are you opening up your backpack to the stench of lukewarm hotdogs that have been waiting for dinnertime? If you know, you know. Hiking…
May the Source Be with You, June Edition
Well, we’re finally hitting that time of year where some days are so hot that it’s nice to pop into a dark and air-conditioned movie theater, just to watch anything, and get cooled down after a long day in the sun. This last week I saw “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” (the entire soundtrack is…
Tributary Whitewater – June 2023
Imagine … a chance to disconnect from the daily grind and an opportunity to reconnect to the things that matter most: family, good friends, Mother Nature. Close your eyes and feel the breeze, inhale the fresh air and listen for the rush of the water. This incredible river experience can be yours with a Tributary…
