Fourth of July Fireworks

Around 9:45 PM, we went back to the house to pick up some chairs and the tripod for my camera. We walked up to Bridgeton Road and set up on the sidewalk facing North. Although Melissa and Erica live in Portland, OR we were actually watching the Vancouver, WA fireworks across the river.

I couldn't decide which photos were my favorites, so I've made a slideshow.

If you can't see it, please make a comment letting me know what kind of error you get.

BBQ & Band

Erica (the Canadian) is American for the day.

Star Melissa and Sara

Aaron, Erica, & Melissa Grilling

Erica Masters the Art of Grilling

Dianthus

As a sort of housewarming gift, I took a bunch of lettuce and spinach seeds and a couple trays of potting soil over to Melissa & Erica's new place this spring.

Apparently I started a big gardening craze. Now they have all sorts of herbs, vegetables and flowers.

Erica, Aaron & Melissa - Time to eat.

Aaron, Sara & Melissa - The food was great!

Local Band Playing at the Channel's Edge

After dinner we walked down the street to the nearby giftshop/cafe to hear the live band playing there. They were quite good, but unfortunately I didn't catch the name of the band.

Aaron & Sara

Erica & Melissa

Puppy & Poppies

Star

Melissa and Erica invited me over to their place for a 4th of July BBQ this afternoon. Melissa and I went over to the nearby park to walk Star before dinner.

Garden Poppy

Melissa went to walk Star for a couple laps around the field, but I got distracted by the pretty flowers.

California Poppy - Eschscholzia californica

This poppy is actually native to the West Coast. It can be a bit of weed in this area, growing all along roadsides.

Poppy and Bachelor's Buttons - Centaurea cyanus

Oddwater

I'd seen billboards for Oddwater, but didn't really know anything about it until I saw this in today's paper. Cool. I wanna go there.

Oddwater has beautiful fish swimming through beautiful glass

Curious Little Snake

Northwestern Garter Snake - Thamnophis ordinoides

Saw this cute little guy on my walk back to the car after work. I scared him at first, but then after I'd laid on the sidewalk for a minute he started to be curious and check me out.

Here's a full body picture of him.