Fourth of July

The early rise mornings continue, up before 7am for coffee, reading, and general web planning. Breakfast has been oatmeal, wonderful cherries and great harvest apple bread (while it lasted!). Josh left to pick up Laura at the Portland airport around 9am. We officially started our blog and did most of our beach packing. Finally, we got over to the “La Hacienda Real” (chosen because it looked clean and sharp and lots of cars even at 2pm) and shared a chicken and beef Fajita, which even Emily said was excellent. After some casual driving and a little shopping (even the “thrift” stores have names like “Goodwill Superstore” and “Salvation Army Boutique”) we returned “home” to pick up Joe and Teteh for our evening at Riverfront Park in Salem. Here we listened some to Coyote Creek and Earl Wear & Haywires (country is more interesting live, but we passed on the CDs), and enjoyed a long firework display right over the Williamette River. Josh and Laura finished their skating and amusement activities in Portland and arrived in time for a few songs and the fireworks. It was nice to finally meet Laura and just hang out and chat. We got out of town much quicker than expected with the traditional mob exodus after the grand-finale (of which there seemed to almost be 3!). Back home for some neighborhood fireworks in the street (well, all but one was in the street!), and then the weary visitors hit the beds.