Look at what a beautiful week it’s going to be! 51 degrees is the weather right now, at 6:30 am.

I’m leaving in half an hour for the coast. Mom has the day off and we both have shellfish licenses to go digging for razor clams.

My mom and I woke up early this morning and left our house around 8:15 am for the hour and a half drive to Hood River (east of Portland). We were on our way to Alice’s Orchard to pick some cherries. I had been on the internet for the last week, checking the status of their cherries. Due to frost and wet pollination this year, the cherry crop has been slim. Opening day was today at 10 am, and I wanted to make sure we were there early.

We arrived just after 10 am to find four other cars in the parking lot. Since this year’s crop was so scarce, there was a limit of 1 bucket of Bing cherries per person, and 1 bucket per car for the Rainiers (yellowish cherries). The Bings were $1.25 per pound, while the Rainiers were $2.25 per pound.

The trees were all relatively small. It’s perfect for kids or seniors to pick. I’ve gone cherry picking before, but I had to use a ladder then. This was really easy and fun to pick.

This was the BIGGEST bunch of cherries I saw. If you can believe it, I only picked a couple from this bunch. There were bigger ones nearby.

The next time someone in Korea goes to a store and sees cherries, let me know how much they are.

Can you spot Mt. Hood in the background?

This is one of the views from the orchard.

The building is where they weighed the cherries. There was also a picnic area for the customers.

By the time we left at 11:30 am, there were at least 30 cars in the parking lots, they were out of buckets, and all the Rainiers were all gone. I think I picked the last good bucket.

I ate SO many cherries today that I had a stomachache by the time I got home. I love the fresh fruit this time of year.

…will be the 4th of July, America’s Independence Day.  Independence from the imperialist oppressor nation of England, who tried to make us spell color with a “u”.  Alas, Ben Franklin, historically known for championing spelling reform, helped Americans to be the slackers they are today.  Oh yeah, he also flew a kite, or something like that.  Back to what I was saying…  It’s too bad that this year, the holiday falls right in the middle of the week.  Still, you’ve got to make the most of a day off.  This year, the Waterfront Blues Festival kicks off on the 4th in downtown Portland, with fireworks at 10:05 pm.  I’m not a big fan of the blues, but I’m a big fan of festivals, so I’m hoping to drop by and check it out.  It’ll also be interesting to see what kind of nighttime firework shots I can get.  I’m not good at nighttime photography - too shaky.  Those years of combat in ‘Nam really did a number on me.  Plus, I don’t have a tripod, so we’ll see what happens.

For those that are curious, here are some of the headliners.  The only name I recognize is the first one.

The Neville Brothers * Koko Taylor * Joan Armatrading * The Blind Boys of Alabama * Pinetop Perkins * Marcia Ball* James Cotton Band with special guest Hubert Sumlin * Mavis Staples * The Dirty Dozen Brass Band * Voice of the Wetlands Allstars (Tab Benoit, Cyril Neville, Anders Osborne, Johnny Sansone) * Eric Burdon and the Animals * Savoy Brown * Steve Lucky and the Rhumba Bums * JJ Grey and Mofro * Watermelon Slim … Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks … and much more!

Since its modest beginnings in 1988, the award-winning festival has grown to be the largest blues festival west of the Mississippi, annually attracting more than 120,000 blues fans from throughout the world.

Click here to open up a player and listen to some of the artists that will be performing.

My mom called and woke me up this morning as she went to work at 6:30 am, to tell me that it had snowed and maybe I should borrow my dad’s truck to go to school. I informed her that I don’t drive to school anyway, and take the MAX.

When I finally got out of bed at 9:00, there were still remnants of the light blanket of snow. There was barely any, but it was snow nonetheless.

As you can tell, I love me some macro!

Thanksgiving day pictures are up. Enjoy!