July 4th and 5th 2012

July 4th 2012
Fantastic first July 4th experience for us Mortensens here in Portland with our friends.
Coffee, marzipan croissants and great sandwiches in a local bakery followed by a small July 4th parade through the streets.
Afternoon at the Blues Festival - a fund raiser for a food bank. Blue skies again and a lovely temperature....factor 50 on. Our first live music experience this summer.

Burgers for dinner at Blast Burger. Then local ice cream from the Creamery .
Greg and Denise took us out around the lake for a couple of hours. Lots of people in holiday mood, in boats or sitting on decks . The air was filled with the smell of grilling sausages and the sound of a sudden crack or loud gun shot sound when people on either side of the lake let off fireworks. At one point a small plane swooped down and flew close above our heads and across the lake.
The temperature dropped quite a lot and it was rather chilly sitting on the water waiting for the official firework display to begin. We had a glass of prosecco while we waited . Eventually our patience paid off and we were treated to a front row view.


July 5th
Wine Tasting at Erath , Vida and Argylle.
Discovered the beauty of Pinot Noir at Erath. This is the wine Oregon is famous for. We did not realise that Pinot was such a light red . We may be converted!!!
We bought 2 bottles of the tasters selection 2009 at Erath.

Across the road and up a long, steep winding driveway to Vida, the winery with a beautiful view.
We tasted Grisling for the first time- a blend of Reisling and Pinot Gris. It tasted exactly like aspirin water to me. That is water which has soluble aspirin in it. We bought a bottle anyway to drink with our lunch which was a picnic in the picturesque winery grounds.

At Vida we quite literally had a shocking experience . The floor was plastic and the surrounding fence was metal. Every time we touched each other we got an electric shock.
Last stop for sparkling wines . Something wrong with my tastebuds because every single one tasted like aspirin water and so we didn't buy anything there.







Sent from my iPhone