Happy 4th!

Jake was out on island again this fourth of July, so Sandy and I headed downtown to enjoy the festivities. The Blues Fest was going on at the waterfront, however when we got there it was at capacity so they closed the entrance. Instead, we watched a little break-dancing and did a lot of people watching. Mel and her friends John and Chris met up with us as well.

I love watching fireworks and think that more holidays should include this little treat. Sadly my camera revolted against me and made all the firework pictures look kinda strange. But that is all I have to work with so here it goes.





During this holiday I am reminded of how lucky I am to live in America and how grateful I am for those who continue to serve to protect all that we have here.

Two Years and Counting

Another anniversary has come and gone. We seem to have a theme of water going now... married at a lake, first anniversary at the ocean and we continued this by heading to the John Day River for a little get-a-way this year.

On the drive out we came across a wind farm and it was incredible to see how many huge windmills were out there!


One of the big attractions we planned to see were the John Day Fossil Beds. There are three separate sites and the first one we saw was the Clarno unit. The Palisades rock formations were awesome. These were formed by volcanic mudflow that coated and preserved leaves, trees and everything else in its path.

This was one of my favorite spots... Do you see the face?


In typical fashion, we set up camp in the rain the first day. Thankfully it stopped not too long after we finished and we were able to have a fire after dinner. Of course you are not really camping without s'mores!









































The next day the weather was gorgeous. We headed into the town of Fossil and saw the super cute court house building that was built back in 1898!


That night we stayed in the town of Spray in a little bungalow right down by the river and had a great view from the back yard.


The next day we visited the Sheep Rock unit of the fossil beds. Very neat looking green rock formations.
























We also stopped by the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center to enjoy some air conditioning and learn a little more about the processes that created all of these fossil beds. The Cant Ranch Museum was our next stop. It was interesting to see a little bit of how life was for the first settlers in this area. This was our actual anniversary day and we had a lovely dinner at the little
(and only) cafe in Spray.

The next day was spent just enjoying the river. Jake got to do some fishing while I enjoyed reading my book and relaxing in the sun. We camped that night in Spray and got to see a beautiful sunset.


















Our last stop before heading home was the Painted Hills unit of the fossil beds.


















It was a wonderful trip and I was sad to be going home. Jake did all the work and planned everything so all I did was get in the car and enjoy. I have such a great husband and had a great anniversary!!