We went down to the Bite of Bend Saturday to have lunch and check things out, and I snapped a few pictures. It was a pretty decent event, beautiful day for it, we had a pretty good time. Consider these photos (with occasional commentary) my review…

This rather sparse street view was east along Minnesota, next to the St. Claire building. Beer, wine, and Bendistillery drinks available there, and the main stage (not visible) which was next to the parking garage. They had a few tables with chairs set up; it sure looks like they could have set a whole bunch more out, huh?

Aside from that, I had the new lager from Wildfire Brewing, aptly named “Logger.” (It’s also regularly on tap at JC’s.) Very drinkable. Now I gotta get down to JC’s sometime and try the ale—it’s only been out for what, a month or two now?

This was the booth for the 92.7 FM radio folks. I had to get a picture of those T-shirts.

Kids area. That’s one of the big inflatable slide things. Cost $1.50 for a ticket to go on it once. Yeah, once. Kind of a ripoff. You could also get 5 tickets for $5, or for $10 an unlimited pass… though I don’t imagine they’d let 2 kids use one unlimited pass, and I ain’t about to shell out $20.

Another of the big inflatable things; it’s the Titanic. Kids climb up the middle and slide down either side. Once. For $1.50. There was only one other inflatable “ride” there, I believe.

On the other hand, the BMC kids area set up behind these “rides” was much better; they had free balloons and tattoos, “Dirt Babies” (a gardening-type activity), a water activity, and a stage area for magic and storytelling. Pretty good setup, that.

Maragas Winery, at the wine area on Minnesota. I just liked the arrangement, so I decided to give them some free advertising. :)

The wood-fired, traveling pizza oven from Veraci Pizza, a mobile pizza cart/company. They started in Seattle, and the whole “traveling cart” thing is their business plan. They’re in Bend now (obviously), and will show up at various outdoor events. The kids had their pizza, great big slices, and it was pretty good, I’m told.

A couple Veraci pizzas hot out of the oven.

Now this was cool. In the right in the center of things (at the Bond/Minnesota intersection), the folks from FyreFlyte were performing this little Cirque du Soleil-esque routine, on stilts as you can see. It was fun and the kids absolutely had a blast watching them. The last few pictures are of the troupe in action.