independence day

Phil had a long holiday weekend and we were planning on going to historic Fort Vancouver to see the fireworks like we did last year, but we were excited when our friends Justin and Angie Carter (who are in our small group at church) invited us over for their family 4th of July cookout. It was so much fun!

They live in Camas, WA, and are situated kind of up a hill with a great view of the Portland side of the river. What I mean by that is you can't see the downtown area of Portland or the actual Columbia River, but you can see all along the south side of the river. I thought watching the fireworks from the barge on Word of Life Island during my STC stint in 1987-1988 was awesome til I watched the fireworks from the Carter's house. Their garage was all set up with the goods when we arrived.

The entire town of Camas was like one big fireworks war zone. They were going off from every direction. You could just stand there and spin around and see one going off everywhere in your line of sight. Justin made this handy-dandy table which I've appropriately named "The Table of Fire" to take out on the street. If you look above the tree line, you can just start to make out the illegal fireworks going off in Portland. As the night got darker, that line of fireworks went on forever. Plus you could see the big ones shot off at the Fort too.

That's Angie's cousin, Chris, who happens to be a fire-fighter. We felt totally safe with him and the bucket of water around :)

Fireworks in Portland are pretty much illegal unless they are below 10 feet (I think). Obviously there aren't many law abiding citizens in Portland because they all come over to Washington and buy illegal fireworks, take them home, and then blast them off from their back yards. It was hard to get a good picture of all the fireworks going on. But if you've ever wondered what it was like to actually stand under one, here you go. . .

*Please note: You will leave with fireworks debris all over you if you are standing that close while they're being shot off.

There were even a few times when Justin & Chris fired off at the same time as the guy across the street. That made for a pretty good time. Phil & I kept trying to get a self-portrait while some of the lower ones were going off on the table of fire, but the pictures all kept turning out like this. It looks like my face is burning off.

But it's not.

Thanks, Angie & Justin for having us over!!!