Happy Independence America!

Well, our Independence day weekend was quite a lot of fun. We drove up to Mt Hood on Saturday morning (a little later than anticipated, but that's ok too) to meet up with my good friend Dave who is also an expat and his Oregonian girlfriend Katie.

They live in an absolutely beautiful area at the base of Mt Hood, at an elevation of about 1500 ft - I hadn't thought of the elevation being an issue but it was interesting.
After we got there we headed out to the Salmon river and did a little hike. I say hike, which is wasn't really - but it was a little more than just a walk, so I guess it was a 'little hike'. It was beautiful though and fun - except that I was hiking in my flip flops. I hadn't brought any other shoes, just two pair of flip flops, and I managed to dig another one out from underneath the back seat of our truck. Ugh.

After that we headed to the golf course and played a little lawn bowls. It was SO much fun and the weather was just perfect. We played Dave & I against Cory & Katie - England vs USA.
Cory & Katie beat us by a point, which was ok I guess - since it was Independence Day weekend... but we WILL have to rematch sometime (soon)!
We grabbed dinner out and then made a dessert run and got some yummy cakes and pies! The gooseberry pie was my favourite, and surprisingly I really liked the coconut cream pie too - something I have never been a fan of, but it was really good!
Sunday was the 4th, and Katie was snowboarding with her brother up at Timberline so the rest of us had breakfast and then headed up to check out the lodge. I'd been there before and I love the lodge - it's amazingly beautiful and the view is always stunning. It was cloudy at the house but perfectly sunny and clear up at the lodge.

We met up with Katie & Sean (her brother) for a drink and snack before heading back to the house to get prepped up for the BBQ.
We headed home as everyone else headed to fireworks - it was getting to be late and Cory had to work first thing in the morning. Swathing grass seed = early morning starts.

We got to see so many fireworks on the way home though, for pretty much the whole drive, and we made it in record time too. There was hardly anyone else on the road, I guess everyone else was watching fireworks or celebrating Independence somehow!