With this Ring

We went to Bend, Oregon for the weekend. Friday and early part of Saturday was for fun. Saturday night time was reserved for a special wedding (aren't they all, though?)

So what do Millers do for fun? Glad you asked.
http://www.maryhillmuseum.org/

It's not really on the way to Bend except in a very loose usage of the term 'on the way' but well worth the extra miles. I hope we can visit again soon. There are so many things that are worth an extra long stare, so many that if you indulged yourself, you'd be there for days. We had time for a leisurely peruse through the museum itself, then moved on to the replica of Stonehenge, where we enjoyed wild winds, the straight-edged shadows and the brilliance of a blue and gold view of the Columbia river gorge through white-edged frames formed by the stones.

Once in Bend, after a good meal and a typical hotel snooze, we dashed out to Big Obsidian Flow and hiked among hills of black, red and silver glass interspersed with pastel versions of the same colors in pumice. A sign describes how people who live near obsidian flows have their lives and art and ideas transformed and imbedded with obsidian. After walking through big flow, I felt it too. I wanted to stay. It truly is a treasure.

Moving on, we went to East Lake and walked along the shore through thousands of butterflies to where hot springs bubble up into the water. No one felt like swimming (the smell and the goopy mud combined with rotted vegetation on the shore may have had something to do with this) so we drove onward to the lava cast forest. The mile long trail took us through acres of lava flow. The tree molds themselves are holes in the ground, although some of them are horizontal tubes where the tree fell over and then burned out on the inside while the lava cooled.

I'm so glad I can get out of the way of lava, or at least have a chance to.

We got back to the hotel in time to clean up for the wedding. The bride was gorgeous, we had perfect weather, and not a single fly buzzed around. Live music, dancing, a charming ceremony, and a whole lot of people in a backyard bbq-style shindig that lasted late into the night. The dogs were exhausted by the end of it, and I'm sure they whined when guests arrived yet again for breakfast. We didn't stay long, though. It was time to go home and take care of our own dogs.

We were swarmed, of course, when we came in, nearly drowning in a sea of unconditional love. I'm so, so tired, and glad to be back, but it was one of those weekends where everything worked out right. I'll sleep deep tonight. Hopefully I won't have that weird bus crash dream again where I helped save the bus driver who'd suffered a massive heart attack. Weird dreams with defined stories--a sign that I haven't written in a while.