The Best Parts of Summer: Camping and Cookouts

For the Fourth of July weekend, we joined a group of friends to go camping on Mt Hood at Timothy Lake. We had an amazing time, and we will definitely need to repeat more trips like these. We have to give a lot of credit to Kristina for organizing the trip; thanks!

Timothy Lake; a dammed reservoir on Mt Hood owned by Portland General Electric (PGE) and used to generate hydroelectric power. PGE made excellent use of the surrounding land by maintaining beautiful trails and spacious campsites. We misjudged the size of the lake; we thought the circumnavigation would be a nice 7 mile hike....halfway around, the cartographers told us it would total 13 miles. This was probably not as much of an issue for Em as she RAN the Seattle half marathon (13.1 miles) the previous weekend.....however the rest of us were very tired by the end of the trek. Little Zoe and Buddy (Courtney and Charlie's lab) were the real troopers as they probably covered 3 times the distance as they ran circles around us the whole time. Buddy managed to find every possible body of water to jump into.

Our campsite was at 3300 ft elevation, so it was just chilly enough to warrant sitting around the fire. L-R: Charlie, Buddy, Courtney, Alana, Tom, Kristina, Matt, Em with Zoe, David, Laura

Zoe and I climbed a fallen tree to test our balance

Zoe, Matt, and Kristina pose at our lunch stop on the half marathon hike

Em on the trail with Timothy Lake in the distance

It looks like PGE is not the only one that likes to build dams around here....we found several trees that were about to become a beaver dam.

The trail was littered with thousands of wild rhododendrons.

After our camping trip concluded, we decided to take the long way home and visit the "Fruit Loop"; an area in Hood River known for plentiful fruit farms.

Orchards in Hood River (with the snowy peak of Mt Hood on the horizon)

After sampling plenty of berries and cherries, we decided to stock up on strawberries. We later converted them into what we hope will be a year's supply: 35 jars of homemade jam.
Ingredients: strawberries and sugar
nothing more, nothing less....arguably the best I have ever had. :)

The weekend after the 4th of July, we had our annual backyard cookout. We had about 50 people show up throughout the afternoon/evening. Thanks to everyone who came out to make it a successful party!! We had a great time visiting with everyone. Here are some random shots of the party:

I noticed that Em has grown fond of holding cute babies. ;)

Luckily the flowers were in full bloom just in time for the party. The hydrangeas on the side yard never disappoint.

Summer is going by too fast. Hopefully we will get time in between trips and work to squeeze in some more camping and backyard BBQ!! You really can't beat the Oregon summer: 85 and sunny with no humidity during the day and it cools off to 55 at night. We have run the AC less than 5 days the entire summer. Come visit before the winter rainy season!!! :)