The last week for me has had very little to do with work and more to do with play.  I was very lucky to have nearly a whole week off from working at the Visitor Center to go to a family reunion at Prineville Reservoir in Eastern Oregon. Prineville Reservoir is about 30-40 minutes outside of Bend and is formed by a dam on the Deschutes River. It is definitely a gem of a place to spend a whole week of summer.   The high desert of Oregon in summer is hot.  90+ degrees hot with absolutely no moisture in the air.  Compare this to the balmy high of Newport around 60-65 and you might get an idea of how much of a shift in climate this was for me.  But it was one that was pretty easy to get use to after a day acclimating to my new abode next to the reservoir.  All the kids ended up camping in tents while the parents stayed nice and cool in their air conditioned campers.  The water level depends on the time of year and the previous winters snow pack and this year the water was pretty high which was good for us.

A day at Prineville usually goes about like this:

Wake up around 9:30.

Read/wait for people to get back from the morning water ski run

Eat a huge breakfast around 10:30

Go wakeboarding/wake surfing

Read and eat a small lunch

Go wakeboarding/ wake surfing

Read

Eat a delicious dinner

Campfire

Sleep around 10:30

Repeat

Because the water level was pretty high the ski boats weren’t too far of a walk (previous years the water level is so low that it is a bit of a trek to get down to the water). I had never gone wake boarding or wake surfing before and both those were a blast.  Unfortunately I wasnt quite in “Prineville shape” and the first day I really tweaked a muscle in my arm which rendered my right arm pretty useless for the rest of the week.  Besides that little mishap everything else about the week was awesome.  I had a blast and am rested and ready for the rest of the summer at the VC.