July 4 holiday

I'm blogging from the lobby at the Kahneeta Resort, which is operated by The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation. Located just east of the Cascade range in Central Oregon, there was a break in the price for spending Sunday night. Gary has Monday off and so a plan was born. Internet access is only from the lobby.

Our neighbors across the street have a large pool in an atrium enclosure. They are extremely generous with its use and it was the setting of July 4 celebrations for the Hamlet as our little pocket on our road is referred to. The pool party is mainly for the kids, followed by a potluck dinner and fireworks.

This year the hosts decided that the fireworks should be legal, owing to the increasing number of children present--as our neighbor Mark said, it had been years since there had been "a children's table" at the meal. His partner has the pyro/explosive gene, however, and when he confided he had some 'other' fireworks at his house for 'later' I asked if we could drop by. While the approved fireworks were fun, they did lack the "ooh!" factor of prior years.

So that's how the evening was rounded out, with some big pop and fizz, and Connor exclaiming delightedly: "Crime DOES pay!" That may come back to bite me...

Saturday we were going to take Gary's raft on it's first run with us as a family on the Molalla River. Back in my kayaking days this particular stretch was one of the few I could run with a high comfort level, yet had some rapids that could be counted on for some excitement. It seemed a good entry-level trip:

1) Gary and I had never rafted together before, and given our track record off being way off on our mutual assumptions of what's reasonable to expect from each other, it seemed best to allow a wide margin for error.

2) Though I've had some experience with white water in kayaking, I've never rafted before, so the above applied.

The lobby's been invaded by my kids demanding breakfast, so this will be continued later...