July 4th (By Pat)

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PAT: Ok, it's clear to me that we won't be keeping this as up to date as I once thought. I had hope to compose entries that were witty, poignant, and informative, but that takes too long. For now, you get the Reader's Digest condensed versions so I can get some pix posted.

July 4th - Waterfalls & Fireworks.

Today we traveled with my sister and her family along the Columbia River gorge. Unwittingly, we also became part of a 4th of July parade. I forget the names of the towns, but after our first route to see many of the waterfalls along the Columbia River was blocked, we went a different way. Soon there was a big backup. Eventually we figured out that a parade had just gone through and we were right behind it.

We were so close, we were seeing people folding up their chairs and kids still grabbing candy. What should have taken 30 minutes took 2 hours. Keep in mind these were towns with basically one road going through them and no other good way to get to where we were going.

We ended up making the most of it, waving to the few that were still seated on the curb, wishing we had candy to throw. The delay ended up taking away our travel time, but added to our experience. What started as an annoyance ended up being kind of fun.

I can't recall, or spell the names, of all the waterfalls we saw, but here are a few pix.

After we got back to Portland, we hit a burger joint for supper and then went to Happy Valley for fireworks. This was quite pretty neat...Happy Valley (boy I'm glad I don't have to put that in my address) sits, oddly enough, in a small valley. We sat high on one side and could see all the houses below. For some reason the layout of the town, and our vantage point, made me think of Whoville, in the Grinch That Stole Christmas. I kept expecting to see the Grinch running down the hill in his sleigh, being pulled by that mangy dog.

While we were waiting for the fireworks, it seemed like half the town had their own fireworks to shoot, and they were good ones. because of our vantage point, many of these were either at eye level or below. We enjoyed these so much that when the actual fireworks show started, it was almost anti-climatic.

Pat

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