OREGON

From Crater Lake to Bend

By Foreign Natives

June 17^th, 2015

We hit the road with the goal of exploring the american continent, but we almost decided to abandon our trip and stop to live here forever. Oregon pretty much has it all. Unbeatable natural landscapes, really cool little towns and an outdoorsy, active and quality-of-life-before-anything-else society. The people here definitely know how to enjoy life, appreciate nature, good company as well as coffee and beer. When in an Oregon town we always feel that people is nicer, greeting us the day as we walk. We have spent our time here doing what Oregonians do: enjoying the nature, swimming in lakes and drinking beer. Well…and working from really nice cafes too!

Contemplating the deep blue beauty of Crater Lake.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Oregon is such a trail running paradise and we’ve taken the chance to run some of their world-class trails: Green Lakes near Bend, Smith Rock in Redmond and the Diamond Lake area, where a swim after sweating kept us fresh and clean.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Bend, located in central Oregon, is known for their outdoors, a very good quality of living and being home to the highest density of craft breweries per capita in the US. All this attracts tons of young people and has taken Bend’s population to almost double in the last 15 years. Breweries, cafes, artisans, running and mountain bike shops fill every corner of this town of 81000.

As we work remotely, we usually spend weekday mornings working from cafes. On this particular day Victor was working from Lone Pine Coffee Roasters (best coffee in Bend) with his San Francisco Running Company hat on when a guy approached and asked him about it. He happened to be Jordan Wolfe, a very good local runner who works in the running community center that the Foot Zone store has become. They went together for a workout that same afternoon and they got their shirts stolen but Jordan gave Victor one of the stores’.

The next day we went out for beers with his wife Katie and roommate Jordan (another one). We went to Crux Fermentation Project and exchanged stories while enjoying the beer in their outdoor patio with live music. We ended up spending the night at his parents’ house driveway and Mrs Wolfe woke us up to good coffee, a tasty breakfast and a warm shower. This family is so kind. We’ll always remember them.

Write your story here. (Optional)

Our last days in the area were spent hiking mountains and running trails. We are looking forward to come back here again to spend more time and living like true Oregonians, but summer is coming and we have to keep going North before it gets too cold in a couple of months.