City Brew Coffee

 

City Brew Coffee is located at Butte in the state of Montana. It is like Starbucks and offers various coffee drinks and smoothies. It also has variety of pastries for customers to select from. City Brew Coffee usually has a standalone building by itself and offers drive through service for its customers.

We went to City Brew Coffee at 5:30AM in the morning when it just opened. Initially, we wanted to go into the store instead of drive through so that we can check out all the items it offered. As we walked towards the front entrance, we saw a pile of newspapers at the front of its door. The employees did not have time to bring it inside yet. As we tried to go in by pulling open the door, the door was still locked. Thus we could only do drive through.

As we approached the drive through, we were not sure what to order. The employee at City Brew Coffee recommend Ice Macciato as it was one of the most popular cold drinks on its menu. So we ordered a large Ice Macciato. The drink was ready rather quick. The drink was sweet with caramel drip inside the drink. The coffee taste was not as strong but it fit our taste.

City Brew Coffee offered good drink from our first experience. We wish we could go into the store to check it out more thoroughly and see how the drinks are made. We will definitely try it again next time.

Yards Bruncheon

 

Yards Bruncheon is one of the best brunch places in Spokane, Washington. It is said to have the best egg benedict in town! Yards Bruncheon has a very high rating among all the food rating web sites and the average wait time is said to be about 30 minutes. Thus it is recommended to go there early or be patient waiting for the table to be ready.

We got to Yards Bruncheon around 11:30PM since it was a long drive from Portland to Spokane. When we got there, the parking spaces in front of the restaurant was quite full. We had to park the car a bit further down the street. When we got into the restaurant, we were told that we have to wait for about an hour. We decided to wait since we already drove so far to get here.

While we were waiting, we walked around the street. We saw a giant dog sitting in front of the coffee shop across from Yards Bruncheon. The dog was huge with golden fur. The dog has a white stripe on its head between its eyes all the way down to its nose. Its paws were covered by white furs too. It was so cute.

After about 45 minutes, our names were called and we got a table outside. The outside seat was quite nice since there were no bugs flying around and the weather was amazing.

We ordered the Yards Benedict and Mushroom Omelet. The waitress was very proactively topping off our water. It was great service. After about 10 minutes, our food were served. The Mushroom Omelet has pumpkin seed at the top, which was refreshing. The fresh mushroom was wrapped inside the omelet. The omelet and the mushroom were a unique combination. The mushroom was quite fresh. It felt like the mushroom may just be stuffed in the omelet directly.

The Yards Benedict was amazing. Unlike many egg benedict we had before, this egg benedict was not really a circular round shape. It was not a big deal. When the egg was cut through, the fresh yog dripped down onto the English muffin. We really loved the taste. The potato served on the side was amazing as well.

Overall, we really loved the food at Yards Bruncheon. This place did not disappoint and we would definitely visit this place again.

John Day Fossil Monument

 

John Day Fossil Monument is a well known place for fossil enthusiast. It is well known to have fossils from about 50 million years ago.  Fossils of various mammals and trees can be found at various sites within John Day Fossil Monument, but people cannot take fossils away of course. Due to John Day Fossil Monument being located on the East side of central Oregon and far from major cities, not many people visit this place.

Within John Day Fossil Monument, the largest visitor center is Thomas Condon Paleontology Center. It is about 2 hours East of Bend. Thomas Condon Paleontology Center has many mammal fossils on the display. It also has a small theatre showing the formation of John Day Fossil bed and shows the process of fossilization and how to clean the fossils.

After visiting Thomas Condo Paleontology Center, we drove West to Painted Hill. Painted Hill is the most popular attraction within John Day Fossil Monument. Painted Hill is popular due to its colourful formation on the hill. The hill seemed to have been brushed with red colour.

There are several short hiking trails around Painted Hill. The Leaf Hill Trail is where people can find fossils of tree leafs. These fossils were all over the place on the ground. But keep in mind that people should only look at it and put it back. People should never take the fossils home.

Overall, the visit to John Day Fossil Monument was an interesting experience that took us through time and understand what Oregon was like 50 million years ago. We recommend to at least visit this place once.

Sparrow Bakery

 

Sparrow Bakery is a very famous bakery shop in Bend Oregon. It has a very cute name. Sparrow Bakery offers various kind of bakery ranging from croissant to bagels. It can also customize customers order by adding cream cheese, ham, egg, and other things. Other than the usual, it also sales dessert such as macaron and eclair.

We got to Sparrow Bakery around 8:10AM in the morning. We figured that since it only opens at 8:00AM, we were probably going to be one of the first customers. However, we found that we were wrong when we got there. There was a long line at Sparrow Bakery. It was very popular among the locals.

We ordered a regular croissant and an almond croissant. We also ordered macaron and eclair to try its dessert menu. The almond croissant has stuffing in it. The stuffing seems to be almond custard of some sort. We liked it since it has good chewy texture to it and sweet. The regular croissant was good too. It was quite soft. The macaron was quite big compared to the regular ones. But we didn't like its texture and we think that it had too much cream in the middle.

Overall, Sparrow Bakery offers amazing bakery good. We really liked the croissant. We would definitely try it bagels next time.

Dee Wright Observatory

 

Dee Wright Observatory is located at the top of Mckenzie Pass near Bend Oregon. It is about an hour East of Bend and the Mckenzie Pass road is only open during the summer when the snow is cleared. The Dee Wright Observatory is built with lava stones and has a panorama view over the entire Sisters Wilderness. It is also a perfect location for star gazing activities.

We got to Dee Wright Observatory around 9PM when the sun was just about to go below the horizon. The day was still bright and we could see Mount Washington on the North side and Sisters Mountains on the South side. The Dee Wright Observatory was very well built with lava stones. We walked up the stone stairs and there was a small chamber with windows as lookout. This small chamber reminded us those Medieval time stone castles.

At the top of Dee Wright Observatory, there was a compass showing the directions. We could see very far from here. It was also not windy and thus not cold. We went back down to the car and waited till 10:30PM until it was completely dark and the moon went below the horizon.

As we stepped out of the car, we were fascinated by the amount of stars that we could see above us in the sky. We could identify the Big Dipper easily and found Polaris. We turned on the flashlight and went to the top of Dee Wright Observatory. On the South side where Sisters Mountains were, we could see the milky way right above the mountain. It was amazing.

There were 2 other cars there with us and they were having fun doing star gazing as well. We really loved this place.

On the way back, we had to drive very carefully since the road was winding and narrow at certain places. We would definitely come back here again and enjoy star gazing.

Miyagi Ramen

 

Miyagi Ramen is a popular ramen restaurant in Bend, Oregon. When we looked up where to go for food in Bend, Miyagi Ramen always pop up in the top 10 list. By just looking at the name of the restaurant, it is a Japanese restaurant specialize in ramen of course. The restaurant is conveniently located by Old Mills District and across from many bars.

We got to Miyagi Ramen at around 4PM in the afternoon and the restaurant was quite empty. There was only 1 table being occupied. As we walked in, we order food first then find a table to sit. We ordered a Tonkotsu Ramen, a Chicken Karaage Rice Bowl, and a Chicken Yakitori as recommended by the restaurant. After we placed the order, we were given the utensils, 2 water cups, and a large jar of water. We found a table by the open balcony to enjoy the wind breeze.

The food got served quite quickly in about 5 minutes. The ramen was served with pork on top, chopped scallions, bamboo shoots and corn in the soup. The soup was quite tasty, we liked it. However, as we have few more sip, we noticed that there was a lot of oil in the soup. It also got quite salty later and not really what we like. The pork was good but a bit too greasy.

The rice bowl was a big disappointment. First, it only came with few pieces of chicken. We could count number of pieces by a single hand. Then the rice has spicy mayonnaise poured on top, but it wasn't that good. We were under the impression that it will have egg or fried onion.

The Chicken Yakitori was quite good. The chicken was tender and juicy. The scallion came with the skewer was amazing too. We loved it.

Overall, Miyagi Ramen was not as good as we hoped. Unless you are craving for ramen, there are other better choices to go to.