Day: August 19, 2023

It’s vacation time! On our way to Summer Lake Hot Springs, we stopped at the Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint and watched bungee jumping for a bit.

We’ve been to this viewpoint many times, including the chronicle of this visit in 2014 with one of my favorite picture of Matt. It’s a deep crevasse, that viewpoint, and thus good for Central Oregon Bungee Adventures to set up shop.

It’s not a speedy process, the bungee jump. After getting strapped in there’s the long wait to get the courage to make the jump. The first person we saw jump went relatively quickly, the second one too longer. But she eventually did it.

It turns out the fun part while watching is not the initial jump, but the first bounce back up. Here’s a photo to orient yourself. Take note of where the bridge meets the side of the crevasse before scrolling to the next picture.

The jumpers go all the way down, and then pop! right back up. They tend to have arms and legs flailing as they bounce.

Once all the bouncing stops, they are reeled up so that another jumper can take their place.

“I can’t believe we will be doing that in just one hour!” cried one of three older teenagers who were also watching. We didn’t stay around to see their jump, but I bet they had fun.

The first part of our vacation was exploring the Oregon Outback, a place I really enjoyed. First of all, driving is much more fun when you are the only car in sight for miles and miles. I also really enjoyed the landscape as it is similar to what I grew up with in Boise.

We stayed at Summer Lake Hot Springs, which provides camping and RV spaces and cabins.

This is the bathhouse that covers the biggest hot springs–fed pool. This picture shows fence rails and that’s where the three outdoor pools are. They are of varying temperatures and we found them to be generally hotter than the main pool.

Here is our cabin, Manzanita. Inside the decor is very eclectic as if it was sourced from various thrift shops. In other words, my kind of place.

Aside from a bed and a kitchen sink and hot plate, there was also a toilet and sink. Super luxury. Here is the glamor shot.

On the first night we played Micro Macro Crime City and had fun staring at the drawing to identify the various crimes that were being committed. This is a fun game that can be played by kids and adults alike. (There were some mature scenarios that are not kid-friendly, but they were clearly marked.)