January in Bend, Oregon
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Disclaimer: Everything in this blog post is of my own personal experience and nothing in this post is sponsored.
Drake Park on a sunny day along the Deschutes River in Bend, Oregon.
First Time Exploring Bend
In the moments leading up to the year 2025, I found myself unsure of why the Universe had brought me to Bend, OR. My mom had booked an AirBnB in Bend for us, along with my cat VelV, starting on December 26th and lasting until the end of January. I was very much apprehensive at first due to not having any driving experience in snowy conditions. I worried about whether I would be able to drive over the mountain passes from Seattle to Bend. On the day we left, the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass route was shut down due to winter conditions and all the way down through our drive on I-5 we encountered a heavy downpour of rain, so that left me with doubts over the conditions over the pass on US route 26. I decided to put my faith in the Universe and trust that if the Divine had led us over on that specific day, then I must be able to make it over safely with my mom and cat. Well, let's just say my worries were completely unfounded due to there being no snow on the ground at all throughout our drive over. This experience left me with much more trust in the guidance of the Universe and I learned to just go with the flow and let whatever is be.
Nature’s Gifts in January
Beautiful little birds nest I discovered on a stroll along the Deschutes River.
The Universe With Other Plans
When I first got to Bend, I thought that if we were here, surely it was to take advantage of the snowy mountains nearby and go skiing on Mt. Bachelor. I was to find out how wrong I would be about that though. Through my stay in Bend, I once again realized that the plan I had in mind wasn't the one that the Universe had in mind for me. As a human being with an ego, I often have ideas and thoughts that don't quite align with my highest and best good, and I am learning to just let go of the rigidity in wanting things to go the way I've imagined and let the change of plans the Universe brings me lead the way forth. I belatedly realized that Spirit had brought me to Bend so that I could utilize the unique energetic state of Bend, Oregon to jumpstart the birthing process of my business. Here in Bend, I entered into a state of creative flow and also rode the wave of Capricorn season energy to drive myself into a work flow. Starting from December 31st, New Years Eve, I started up the process of forming my LLC and building my website. I rode that energetic wave all the way to the end of Capricorn season and on January 21st, whilst entering into Aquarius season, my new holistic health business was launched!
Exploring Old Bend
While the main goal of this trip ended up to be the kick-starting of my new business venture, I also had the time to explore Bend during the little breaks in between. The AirBnB my mom had booked turned out to be located in the neighborhood of Old Bend, which meant we were located in a central location with restaurants and shopping in all directions of where we were staying. We were able to park our car in our AirBnB's garage and walk to most of the places around town. Since we have AirBnBed full time for over a year now, it had been a long time since we have had a garage to park our car in, so that was a really nice touch of this Airbnb in Bend, especially in the winter months. My mom and I often wandered the streets of Old Bend and Downtown Bend, and she also often went without me while I was home working on pulling my business into the physical. We loved browsing the local small businesses, often finding something that we loved within those quaint shops. We have discovered quite a few pieces of clothing, stickers, and jewelry we are quite fond of here. We discovered that we had to walk into a shop to discover the treasures within them and there were such abundance within. There was almost always something cute once we had walked into a shop to explore. My mom and I most enjoyed the lovely little boutiques with their carefully curated items. We also discovered so many other vacation rental properties and different types of stays from little bed and breakfasts to local hotels and big name hotels all centrally located.
Some of the little boutiques and small businesses my mom and I loved exploring in Downtown Bend were (in no particular order):
FOUND Natural Goods - I instantly connected with an Oracle Card deck in this shop and knew I needed this deck in my life! In fact, it’s sitting on my desk right beside me as I write this post!
Dutch + Bow - My mom and I both found nice pieces of clothing here and loved that they sell clothing made from sustainable fabrics.
Silverado Jewelry Gallery - My mom and I both connected with multiple pieces of jewelry here. Shout out to Acanthus Jewelry where most of the pieces we felt drawn to were made! Beautifully made!
Lotus Moon Boutique - Again, we both found several amazing clothing items each in this cute boutique!
Food in Bend
The food options were abundant here as well. Within a 5 minute walk of where we stayed were 2 made from scratch food cafes we frequented multiple times throughout our stay. Further downtown along the river, we dined at a Thai establishment offering Thai hotpot. This was actually our first time trying Thai hotpot and we loved it! We found so many beer establishments in Bend, and there really were quite a few restaurants and bars offering happy hours around, but neither my mom nor I drink any alcohol, so we entertained ourselves with some mocktails and ate some small plates during our happy hour outings. We also found a raw vegan food and smoothie cafe when we first got to Bend that we went to several times and enjoyed. My mom went out for coffee almost daily while I was working and she loved a coffee shop that serves organic coffee and a bookstore cafe that has been in that location for decades. Do be aware that many frequent the restaurants in Bend and many do fill up even on weekdays. It is wise to make a reservation especially on Saturdays. We often found ourselves in crowded restaurants and sometimes even walking away from restaurants with long wait times.
A few of the food & drink establishments we enjoyed more than once in Bend were (In no particular order):
Jackson's Corner - Old Bend
Active Culture
Sen Thai Hot Pot
Salud Raw Food
Dudley's Bookshop Cafe
Salud Raw Food
Hot Apple Cider
Wontons
While working towards the launch date of my business and website, I found myself getting more and more stressed out. While walking home from a food truck establishment with an array of different cuisines, I noticed a wellness center. I looked up their name online once I had gotten home and became interested in their Japanese Head Spa offering. I booked a time for myself as a form of relaxation and for some me time, and my mom ended up also booking one for herself for the day before I had mine. We both enjoyed our experiences. The spa was located in a cute little historic two story house in the streets of Old Bend and they had this huge rose quartz carving behind the house as part of the landscape and a one ton smoky quartz in the front garden. I have had experiences with head spas before, once in Lynnwood, WA and once in Seoul, South Korea. This one in Bend was unique in that their head spa was attached to a lay flat full body massage chair. I slid my arms into slots for the arms and the massage chair would squeeze my arms and hands during the massage. I found that experience quite interesting as I had never previously experienced anything like it.
EVOKE Healing Space
Giant Rose Quartz carving in the garden landscape of this wellness center. Great vibes and energy in this spa!
Creative Expression Through Cooking
Because I stayed home to work on opening up my own small business so much while here in Bend, we were unable to really explore much else or much further out than around a 40 minutes walk radius of our central location. We passed by an ice skating rink on our walks that I hoped to go to and unfortunately were not able do that nor to get on the slopes. We also didn't go out for food as much as we previously did due to having a full size kitchen at this AirBnB in Bend and my renewed interest in cooking. I found that I became passionate about expression through the creative process of cooking again. Even though I quickly found out our oven wasn't working, I had use of an air fryer here, which I loved using because of its efficiency and speed at which our food was done. That meant that I could have fun cooking during those pauses I took through my work, while not having to spend too much time and energy taking away from my work. I was also lucky to have my mom to do the prep and clean up from our meals, as she definitely helped speed the process along even further and the cleaning up after meals is always my least favorite part of the cooking process.
Nature and the Deschutes River
Of course, there were still times when I got out of the house and much of this time was spent walking along the Deschutes River. These walks were so peaceful even though a handful of these walks were in the cold with winds blowing against my face causing my eye to tear up constantly. It was surprising when there was about a week in length and some offlier days where the temperatures were in the 50s, with one day even reaching 60 degrees Fahrenheit! When we first got to Bend, we had a week or so of snow and rain, but as January continued onwards, we found that most every day was sunny and dry. I enjoyed the clear skies with puffy white clouds as a result, and the sunsets were magnificent here. Sometimes while I was home working, I would look out the windows and see a wonderful orange sunset, and some evenings it would be the most beautiful deep shade of pink with Mt. Bachelor in the background. When we were out after 5pm, we would walk back to our accomodation in the dark, where as soon as we looked up, we found a night sky lit up with thousands upon thousands of stars! The constellation of Orion was so clear in the sky when we walked home from downtown Bend. Sometimes we would walk beside the river and come home through Drake Park and sometimes we would walk along the main streets of Old Bend to get back home.
Near the beginning of our trip here, we followed the Deschutes River down the other direction. There, we found the Old Mill District and the shopping mall there. We meandered past the shopping mall and found more parks alongside the river. We loved the trails that follow alongside the river, though through a few areas, there is only trails on one side of the river. We saw lots of ducks and geese as well as other little and large birds along our strolls by the river. I loved seeing the geese walking on top of the ice where the river had frozen along its riverbanks and seeing little birds nests along the side of the trail.
Future Bend Plans
I loved the vibe and energy of Bend, Oregon and I hope to come back sometime. I had only ever been here once prior for an overnight stay while passing through town on a road trip in 2021 and was never able to explore. I had just adopted my dog back then and was bringing her back to Seattle with me.
I want to be here in the summer months for hiking and to visit Skydog Sanctuary, a mustang sanctuary I follow and regularly donate to that is located near Bend. Since this was in majority a work trip, I would love to come at a different time to visit the 2 mustang mares, Love and Cinnamon I've been sponsoring and the burro jenny Kismet I recently started sponsoring at Skydog!
