Here The Trail Smelled Like Butterscotch

I'd like to hit you right off the bat with a Mark Trail-esque factoid: Did you know that Ponderosa Pines are said to smell like butterscotch? Butterscotch Schnopps, actually, (in my opinion) but they totally do.

My husband and I got away this weekend. It was the second getaway this year. AND it was my birthday. Me? Beyond lucky.

I turned 35, placing me in a whole new age bracket. Still, I feel nineteen most of the time. Not a good thing, I'm just sayin'.....

We went to Bend, camping the first night, staying the second at McMenamin's Old St. Francis School. We visited Painted Hills and Paulina Peak and trekked down into a Lava cave. We saw Waitress and ate out and bathed in side by side clawfoot bathtubs. I kid you not. Here's a picture to prove it.It was only a little creepy to have the two girls who the room was named after watching us bathe from where they'd been painted on the wall.

Bend's downtown is thriving and charmed the pants off me. My husband had to ask me to stop saying how cute it was because I'd unknowingly gone overboard with the oohing and aahing. But when we walked down to Drake Park even in the dark the lazy, calm water made all well with the world.
The kids had a great weekend with my mom. They mainly couldn't wait for us to get home so they could have a piece of the Pineapple Upside Down Cake that they'd made, a 3 and 5 candle waiting in the center of it for my wish.

You know it was a good weekend when it's Monday and you're still remembering. We were totally in need of such smiles, found together, in faraway lands. I'll leave you with a few cool shots..... One of the paths through a 3 million year old hill at Painted Hills.
The exit from the Lava River Cave.

A cool juniper tree at our campground. (Another great smelling tree).