While I was gone, Bend apparently appeared on MSNBC in an article under their “Budget Travel” category. Titled “Portland’s quirky-chic cousin“, it’s actually not a bad article, by and by, but you just know I have to pick some of it apart.

The author starts her day with breakfast at The Victorian Café, which is naturally a good choice. (Best breakfast in Bend, I call it.) But then, talking about the “lunch-box houses” in the historic parts of Old Bend, she mentions that the Historical Society walking tour is of these “lunch-box” houses; in fact, many of the destinations on that tour are quite the opposite. (Unless you consider places like the Congress House or the School Administration Building lunch-box housing…)

And she doesn’t quite place Deschutes Brewery on Wall Street rather than Bond, but that’s the impression a casual reader will get. Plus, she visits the Brewery and only drinks Cascade Ale? This is microbrew country, what’s up with that? A Black Butte Porter should have been on the tab at the very least.

Kudos on talking to John Flannery and the snarky comments about some of the awful roundabout art we have here, though.

Hmm, overall I’d say it’s fairly well-balanced. I find it fairly telling, though, that Bend is being featured in a “Budget Travel” piece rather than a “Best Places to Live / Breathe / Overpay on a Home” article these days…