Over the River ...

AND THROUGH THE PASS:  Christmas Day meant a bit (well a LOT) of traveling for us. We left Seattle at 7 a.m. on the nose. First stop: Lake Oswego, Oregon, for brunch with some family. Mercifully, holiday traffic was light, and we arrived there just a few minutes after 10 a.m.

I (lamely) neglected to take any photos, so I can't prove it happened. ;)

We left Lake Oswego (which is just south of Portland) about 1 p.m., destination, Bend, Oregon, another three-plus hour stint in the car (did I mention we had two dogs with us?).

Our trip took us through Detroit (Oregon-style), and we got to see the sizable Detroit Dam through the windows as we whizzed by.

Fortunately, traffic remained light, the weather was decent, and there was but a dusting of snow at the North Santiam Pass.

Mostly, it was dry pavement, and mostly blue skies.

We did encounter a snow plow that was pushing slush.

And we can now saw we've visited the Deschutes National Forest.

It was fun to experience at least a bit of a white Christmas!

We arrived in Bend a little after 4, and had a lovely prime rib and potatoes dinner, and then had barrels of laughs by gifting the kids' cousins with crazy candy canes in flavors like macaroni and cheese, clam, dill pickle and (worst of all) rotisserie chicken. They were delightfully disgusting.