Temperatures are soaring all over the Pacific Northwest and here in Sheridan we're supposed to reach the dreaded 'dubble digits' on Monday!!



So far we're keeping fairly cool with both AC's running, but at the hottest time of the day it still gets to a quite warm 75-80F inside.

Fantastic weather for all the 4th of July activities of course, although a little cooler would have been preferable by most, I presume.



We don't have a large flag but I found this little one in a closet and stuck it on the pole next to the dish and the hummingbird feeder .. not very dignified I admit, but I couldn't come up with another place to hang it from .. hey, I tried!

Willamina, the tiny town of roughly 2000 souls that we live the closest to, goes all out for the 4th!
We decided to check it out but first went for an early coffee at the newly opened coffee shop where we hadn't been to yet.

I guess it's not bad, they tried to make it somewhat cozy and attractive but it's still a little to open and blah to me but what annoys me the most are the ridiculous prices they ask for their pastries. $4 For an itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie strudel .. come on!
I know prices of all ingredients have gone up since COVID and the rents of buildings are sky-high but really ..

From there we walked a little through town, checking out the various arts and crafts booths and all the people decked out in their summery finery!

       

We ended up at the Willamina Community Center, which is situated at the old high-school grounds and where the large old football field with it's shaded bleachers is a perfect place for all the activities this little town puts out during days like this.

                                                                                  

Boasting to be the 'Timbertown USA' most of the events have something to do with being a real 'lumberjack' and the Logging Show includes chainsaw competitions, axe throwing and log loading, as well as the more easy going horse-shoe and corn-hole tournaments:

                                           

We also strolled over to the car-and truck show for a while..

                            





By than it was almost 90F and we called it quits, time to hole up in the much cooler RV.
That afternoon the temperature rose to 96F!                 

                                                         

James braved the outdoors around 3pm to grill some fries and hamburgers but we opted to eat inside.
It was just too bloody hot!

  

Together with an overnight salad we had a true 4th of July feast!

 

Around 9 pm it had cooled down enough to return to the community grounds to watch the fireworks that were starting at 'dusk'. Which, I looked it up, was at 9.40 but it didn't start 'till 10pm.
I bet, besides us, pretty much the whole town showed up! It was packed!

People sitting around on the logs with coolers full of drinks, snacking on all kinds of fair-foods and children laughing and running around with light-up bracelets made for a truly old-fashioned, long summer-evening, small-town-fun atmosphere.
I felt like I was in an old, 60s, feel-good movie!

We'd heard they take fireworks in this town quite seriously and it was indeed very good, although we've seen better (but traveling like we've done, we've seen a lot of different ones, most likely more than most people ever will).
Sitting in the bleachers we had a good view of it!



So, that was the 4th for this year. In case anybody wonders, there was a parade as well but at 6 o'clock we thought it was still too hot for our liking.
We just couldn't imagine standing at the side of the road for an hour or more and get completely toasted!

Today I brought out my (even smaller) little flag I got at my Naturalization 2 years ago.
Yes, two years ago, can you believe it!? Time flies indeed ..

You can't see it, but that flag is stuck in a delightful piece of cherry pie I baked for the occasion.

(Apparently cherry-pie is America's most favorite summer-pie, so I guess I nailed it!)