Carla and I finally made it to the states of Oregon and Washington. The occasion was a semi-reunion of high-school chums; after our last quinquennial Bell High School Class of Winter 1960 reunion in May of 2015, our class president Nelda Candland Dehm and her husband Tom suggested that we might want to have a reunion in Bend, Oregon, where they have been living for the past 30-some years. A number of us wanted to do it, and Tom and Nelda planned it for last week.

Last Monday, Carla and I flew from Burbank to Portland, where we rented the car that we drove to Bend. We stayed over that first night at the Portland Airport La Quinta Inn. For dinner, we looked online where we found the Cabezon Restaurant within easy driving distance; it wasn’t crowded, and I enjoyed a cod-based dinner that was just right–not too much to eat and delicious. Carla wasn’t that hungry and just had dessert–peach shortcake.

That evening, we contacted Ann and Don Pearson, friends formerly from the Glendale First Ward where Don was bishop and stake president and Ann was everything else, and arranged to meet for lunch the next day. They live across the Columbia River from Oregon, in the Portland suburb of Vancouver, Washington. Ann had a Tuesday 11:30 a.m. appointment to do Relief Society visiting teaching, so Carla and I killed some time before Ann was available for lunch, driving over the Willamette River to visit the famous Powell’s City of Books, a Portland bookstore that covers a city block. We still had time left, so we drove across the Columbia River to the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. We would like to have seen more there, but left in the middle of a tour of the site’s Marshall House, so called because it was for a time the home used by General George C. Marshall.

We had a fine lunch and visit with Don and Ann at Beaches, at an outdoor table alongside the Columbia River in Vancouver.

After lunch, we drove to Bend, where we stayed at the Riverhouse. It’s a nice place, but our stay there was marred by a false fire alarm that went off after we went to bed Wednesday night, from about midnight to 1 a.m. Anyway, Tuesday evening, Tom and Nelda hosted a social at their lovely home for our group, consisting in addition of Pete and Beth Veloff, Ron and Kathy Rodda, Perry and Carol Davis, Gary and Sherry Fauver, Wayne and Monica Thomas, George and Caroline Thompson, and Ed and Linda Hinckley. Wayne and Monica traveled all the way from Canberra, Australia, to be there; and I hadn’t seen Wayne or Perry since high school. Yes, we (except for George and Caroline) look older, but this was exciting. We began summaries of our lives since our last reunion.

Tom and Nelda had an itinerary for us for Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday, we were all off to pretty Benham Falls and then an excellent no-host lunch at the Awbry Glen Golf Club Restaurant, not far from Nelda and Tom’s place. That afternoon, we went exploring our own ways; Carla and I drove to the top of Pilot Butte where we got a great view of the many volcanic peaks surrounding Bend. That evening, Tom and Nelda hosted us all for a BBQ beef dinner at their home. The rest of us gave the summaries of the recent events in our lives. Then Wayne provided an interesting and entertaining lecture about the geography and political divisions of Australia. Because Wayne and Monica’s flight schedule, we had to bid them adieu that evening.

Thursday, most of the rest of us went to Camp Sherman, along the Metolius River—a pretty spot where we saw a group driving antique cars and a Viet Nam vet dressed in military gear who had a jeep with a machine gun (unusable) and ammo.

Ready for action

Watching the fish

From there, we went to the spring that serves as the origination of the Metolius River. The growing underbrush made it difficult to get a good view from the other side of the the fence that we did not cross. Then it was off to the Black Butte Ranch for a nice lunch at its Lakeside Bistro; Carla also bought some local honey and jam there. And there were the old cars again:

Beautiful oldies

Next we went to the town of Sisters for ice cream at Ari’s and walks through some of the shops. Of course, Carla and I had to hit the quilt shop; they have an annual quilt show there that Carla knew about. The outside metal sculptures also lured us into Ken Scott’s Imagination Gallery, where I bought a dye-on-silk painting of a farm scene that will be shipped to us this week. We returned to Bend, where we all bid fond farewells until our next reunion.

That evening, Carla and I drove into downtown Bend and split a pizza at 900 Wall; then it was off to bed for our last night in Bend.

Early the next morning, following up on a suggestion for an alternate route back to Portland from Don, we drove north to Maupin and The Dalles, and then west along the beautiful Columbia River past the Bonneville Dam to scenic Multnomah Falls, where we stopped to take some photos.

Watching water

We got to the Portland airport early enough to turn in our Dodge Grand Caravan rental, lunch in the airport at Mo’s Restaurant, and our flight home. Many thanks to Nelda and to Tom, who despite being a graduate of our rival Huntington Park High School we now consider a Bell High Eagle. We had a great time.