god bless the american conviction

As an English 'alien' the 4th of July felt like a normal Friday to me but gradually The day felt more and more of an occasion as the city seemed to be in overdrive! I spent the early evening have a good ol' BBQ with the family I live with to be followed by a bus trip to downtown to meet Lauren where we forced our way through crowds down by the river side, climbed over fences and sat on the river rocks to watch the celebratory fireworks which to be honest were quite spectacular:


After the fireworks we went to voodoo doughnuts hoping there wasn't a que and managed to get there before the 4th of July rush! This place is good I've been assured there are better vegan baked goods like sweetpea but that's all the in SE on stark so if your downtown in Portland I recommend this place! we had the special 'ol dirty bastard' which had oreo cookies and peanut butter:

Left-sadly this is not the picture of my doughnut or even the vegan version but you get the general idea that this thing was pretty awesome to eat at 11pm on a national holiday! Right-the store front of VD which is next to an old tehatre now an 'adult cinema

The continuation of the Holiday which was unknown to me was celebrated the whole of the weekend not just the day so i spent time with the family again taking the older kid and his friend to see Hancock while the parents took the younger kids see wall-e. Despite working in a theatre for over a week this was my first experience at an 'American' movie theatre. Sometimes I have huge visions of what certain things are like mainly from media portrayal's but it was the same as any other cinema just with larger amounts of candy and big gulps!

The final day of the holiday was spent with Lauren-the original plan was to go on the hunt for berries some boy informed us of at the house show last week we drove all the way day route eight something to find the berries were not ripe. Lauren suggested a drive up to Multnomah falls where we walk-got out of shape laughed at gift shop memorabilia and saw the side of Washington over the Columbia river which looked to only be a stone throw away!

columbia river view from crown pt

multonmah falls

After our mini road trip we went back to laurens where i played with her cats, discuss how stupid boys can be and ate this awesome curry stuff with 'chips'. We then headed to hawthorne theatre where tilly and the wall were playing. I never heard much of tilly ad the walls music but heard alot about them from various friends so was keen to see them live and i must admit I enjoyed it whole heartly even if iw as slighty tired/grumpy! The theatre itts self is bizare-its looks like it could of been such a classic building but i'm not sure if it is a conversion or just made to look like that for kudos? the other thing i'm still getting use to is the strict divde between 21+ and minors. It was the same at the venue downtown where have hart played. one section for minors then a heavily guarded section that has bar for the 21+, so even if you want a glass of water or soft drink oyu have to be 21 to get one. Thankgod for identification.

After the show the finale of the weekend was getting lost back to west linn for some reason we can never get on the straight road! Excellent all round

xo