eastward!

we left portland saturday morning and began our long drive back east.  our plan was to largely drive through, with very few daytime stops. it was a long drive, portland to chicago is 2100 miles.

that said, getting out of oregon we had one planned stop - in bend, oregon.  we wanted to go to bend because we had heard great things about the high desert town, but our real purpose was the beer.  we drove through the quaint town and straight to deschutes downtown bend location.  deschutes has a special cache, at least to me, in the craft beer world.  they were one of the first craft breweries in the country and are known for their high quality product.  whit and i were struck at first by the size and professionalism of the brewery and restaurant.  it's a large two-story building that seems outsized to serve the small bend community.  we got a sampler of all their beers and some decent food.  the beer was truly great.  i liked every option in the sampler.  i don't think i've ever felt that way at any other brewery.  each beer was so well balanced and clean.  really great stuff.

after bend we continued east and stuck to our plan - no other daytime stops. however, our dinner stop along the route included another surprise. landlocked boise, idaho, has some amazing sushi. i must admit, i was quite skeptical when whit navigated us to a run-of-the-mill shopping center in the boise suburbs, but when our plates of fresh, tender, melt-in-your-mouth rolls arrived, we were thoroughly impressed. yelp usually doesn't lead us astray, and this time was no different. we assume the quality sushi may be a result of the japanese that settled in this region during and after WWII internment.

the drive west to east is interesting.  in my mind, structured as it is in an east coast mold, this drive was the opposite of how the u.s. has evolved and developed.  we drove through the high desert, and then green, mesa-like eastern oregon and idaho.  further east we got into the rolling hills of wyoming and the flat prairie of nebraska.  it's all very beautiful, if vast and largely uninhabited.  driving into chicago, especially from the west, it becomes very clear why chicago has such sway in the midwest - it's the big city.  and it really is.