During my visit to Bend Oregon I wasn’t very impressed by the meals we had while out and about - not that they were bad, but they weren’t particuarly good either. By the third day, we decided to ask a local. She suggested Cafe Yumm - good food plus all organic. Can’t beat that! So we decided to give it a try that evening.

We found Cafe Yumm in the Old Mill shopping district. At first I was a bit skeptical because it kind of has a fast food look to it. Their menu had a bunch of options and I almost went for the tasty sounding salmon (wild, line caught) burger. However, I could see they are known for their Yumm Bowls and since it may very well be the only time I would be able to experience Yumm (to date only located in Oregon), I figured it was only proper to experience their specialty.

I got their Original Yumm Bowl (sans sour cream and olives).
It starts off with organic brown rice and organic black beans layered with their secret sauce, then topped with organic salsa, cheddar, diced tomato, fresh avocado slices and cilantro.
It was super tasty - by far the best meal we had there (and ironically the cheapest and probably the most organic).

If you are in or travel through Eugene, Springfield or Bend Oregon, I highly recommend enjoying a Yumm Bowl!

Tags: bend oregon, Food, Life, Travel

Related posts

• Host Cats in Bend
• Discovering Bend

No Comments »

I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions, simply because I prefer to plan and adjust my goals monthly rather than annually. However, the start of a new year is when I go over all my finances and look back over the past calendar year to see how I did overall - in every aspect of my life.

As I plan out my next year, I’ll decide what I want to do and how I can best accomplish those goals. I also ponder over different potential scenarios, recognizing that life doesn’t always follow the plan setup at the beginning of a calendar year.

I have nothing ‘new’ that I want to accomplish this year - nothing that I decided to start on Jan 1, but all my previous goals are still around getting worked on - one small attainable step at a time.

Same Goals - New Year

Under each of these major goals, I have lists (many many lists!) of smaller goals that I work towards.

• Continue doing the activities I love:
  Climbing, traveling and now my newest crush (not quiet love yet): cycling.
• Continue working towards my financial goal which is less then two years away now.
• Continue becoming more environmentally and health aware and making changes that I can.

Then there are my challenging goals…these are the goals that I want to do, but have issues following a plan and getting them done:

• Simplifying
• Fitness
• Spanish

One thing I realized as I reviewed this list, is that these three personally challenging goals fall directly under some of the goals and activities that I’m passionate about, so perhaps if I focus more on their relationship with things I love, they will become easier to accomplish.

Fitness will make me a stronger climber and a better cyclist, enabling me to do harder climbs and accomplish some of the longer rides I would like to eventually do.

Simplifying, among many benefits, is connected to both my environmental and financial goals. I need to free myself both emotionally and physically of a lot of stuff before I go move on to my next living space, and it is in line with my low-consumer ideals.

Spanish mostly stems from a general goal of self-improvement. I have a strong feeling that I should know a second language - I want to know a second language. As far as connecting this to one of my larger goals, knowing another language would be exetermly beneficial for traveling.

I’ll just keep on working on these…

Tags: fitness, goals, Life, Money

Related posts

• Taxes Done
• NW - Mar08
• NW - Jan08

No Comments »

Last week I took a rode trip up to Bend Oregon. My goal of the trip was to check out the city as a potential future residence.

This was a less than ideal time of year to go, being shortly after a big storm, but we had the awesome opportunity to stay with a friend of Felix’s who was house-sitting near Smith Rock - the views were spectacular. As an added bonus we got to see llamas, sheep, and goats on the ‘farm’.

I really enjoyed my time there, exploring the downtown and local neighborhoods. The city is a perfect size (for me) and has a beautiful natural terrain with stunning views of The Sisters (pictures to follow)

We also made the short drive to Sisters, a very cute town with a population of 1760. Adorable town!

Even with the cold, the sun was mostly out so we managed to get in a couple short hikes at Smith Rocks.

In short, I found Bend to be a really great place that was in an environment and has a culture I like. Unfortunately I think the biggest con for Bend is the housing cost are a bit out of my comfort range for the house I would be looking for.

Tags: bend oregon, Life

Related posts

• Host Cats in Bend
• Cafe Yumm

1 Comment »