For the 4th of July, I took a long-weekend trip to Crater Lake & northern California.

Jeni & I went to Grants Pass, OR, Friday night, and then down to Redwoods National Park on Saturday, where Jon joined us in the afternoon. We checked that out through Sunday, staying in Crescent City, OR, overnight. Then we went back to Medford, OR, stopping at Oregon Caves National Monument en route, where we took a tour through the cave led by a pretty crazy dance major tour guide. Monday Jeni had to work, and Jon and I explored Crater Lake and a few scenic pullouts nearby, including the Rogue River Gorge and Mill Creek Falls. Monday night we all stayed in Medford again, and discussed Minnesota sales tax code. Then Tuesday we all went back to our summer residences to get back to work.

Tuesday night in Seattle I made it back in time to catch the fireworks at Gas Works Park. Pretty awesome… synchronized with music, well choreographed, and even some sweet new ones I’d never seen before, like smiley faces, cubes, and some sort of “Italian Electric Show” that involved dozens of little explosions from one shell.

All told it was a pretty awesome weekend.

More pictures to come when I find my camera’s USB cable, but here’s one that I uploaded on the road (it’s deceptive because of the shadows, but there is exactly ONE tree in this photo):

The trees were large.