Yesterday was a grand day of nostalgia. We went to a Blockbuster! The last time we could do that was over a decade ago. To the locals of Bend it’s any day they want to. As we paroused the aisles you could hear a father and daughter walking around discussing which movie she wanted to rent. It was all just normal life for them still. It was so surreal!
But before we ever got to Blockbuster, we enjoyed a nice morning in our camper. Tay’s normal 8am meeting was at 5am in Bend time, so the alarm went off at 4:30 haha! A nice early start.
I had my morning coffee in the camper which was delicious by the way. You know how hotels leave those crummy coffee packets for their wonky coffee makers? Well this airbnb had something like those, but it was a little packet for pour over coffee. That’s how I knew I was in a hipster area haha! But it was delicious coffee! Even better than the restaurant we went to!
We did our research and discovered the best breakfast in Bend was located at Mckay’s. We were so excited to try it out until we pulled in and saw a large crowd of close to 30 individuals waiting to be seated.
We turned our car around as fast as possible and headed for the Original House of Pancakes instead haha! It was still scrumptious; I had never been to one before and it’s one of Tay’s faves! Plus it was only a 15 minute wait.
On our way to the House of Pancakes, we passed through Bend’s really nice downtown and fell more in love with this city. We even passed another river filled with river surfers! Who knew this was a popular thing?!
As we ate we did some research. When we saw how busy Mckay’s was we were left with the question of how that was possible on a Monday morning. Didn’t people work?
We soon learned that (as we learned the day before) Bend is expensive. It’s one of those overinflated real estate markets. The internets told us the theory is that it will soon reach prices similar to that of Jackson Hole. This of course meant nothing to us, but it seemed like a big deal.
Because it was so expensive, we also learned Bend is home to a large number of retirees, entrepreneurs, and remote workers with high salaries.
Thus the mystery as to why so many people were out to eat at 11am on a Monday morning was solved.
After breakfast/brunch we hustled on over to Blockbuster.
Wow!
It was so surreal to walk through those doors again. It’s hard to explain and honestly I’m still wrapping my mind around it.
We ended up renting 3 movies for $1 each. We got Spirit (I didn’t fall asleep this time), Scooby Doo and the Alien Invasion, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which felt very fitting).
After snagging a few souveniers, we hurried back to our camper, set us the PS4, and watched movies for the rest of the day!
It. Was. Awesome.
That evening we ran out and grabbed some amazing pizza from a local brick oven pizza shop and ate pizza, drank coke, watched Harry Potter, and even popped some popcorn we got at Blockbuster. It was a dream come true.
The whole day was a much needed rest. I think we were both still drained from a week of travel and a busy social weekend. At one point we had planned to go rock climbing on our extra day in Bend, but neither of us were really up to the feat.
We have no regrets enjoying a nostalgia kick and watching movies all day in our camper. It was a rest we both needed. We got to spend quality time with each other and the Lord.
This is something we should never feel ashamed of; in fact it’s something God commands us to do right there in the 10 commandments. Rest. Yesterday was a great day of rest for us.
We also have decided we absolutely love Bend, Oregon, and will 100% be back to try out Mckay’s, rent more movies from Blockbuster, and maybe even try out river surfing!
What a great choice: to rest a day together watching some sweet memories, in your clean and cozy camper! This may be one of your most memorable days!
Sounds fun