Roadtrip: Bend to Boise

M&Ms in each assorted color!

They were closed...too bad.

Did not eat this...but intriguing, no?

A visit to Bend was a rather strange experience. After driving for hours from northern California, in the middle of (what felt like) nowhere, appeared this cosmopolitan, young, vibrant community of Bend, Oregon.

We enjoyed our short visit here, enough to see the quaint downton (with some cool shops and restaurants), swim in the hotel pool, and organize our stuff. We woke up early to see USA score a goal in the World cup, and left early for today's drive.

The drive East of Bend was impressively stark. They call the area "the Badlands of Oregon", with miles after miles of this kind of landscape. The road was so flat and straight in some areas that I just set the car on cruise, with one finger on the steering wheel.

We crossed over to Mountain Time zone just before reaching the state of Idaho.

We had read earlier that Boise, Idaho has a vibrant Basque community. I was only reminded of this when I called our friend Case to ask for dinner recommendations (he is a walking good-restaurant guidebook). Even though I interrupted his World Cup and Wimbledon viewing, he gave us some very good suggestions, one being a Basque restaurant in the old part of downtown Boise.

The whole downtown was buzzing with activities. You would not think it is a Wednesday night! The first restaurant we went to was too packed, but luckily, we found the Basque Block and managed to find a great meal at a another Basque restaurant, across the street from the Basque Center! Imagine that. In Idaho, of all places.

We ate salted cod, bean stew and garlicky prawns. We felt, for a few minutes, like we were transported to Europe. Oh, the beauty of a roadtrip!

Tomorrow, we are inching closer to Yellowstone National Park.