Boatnik/Memorial Day 2013

What a wonderful, rainy, lovely Memorial Day weekend it has been!

This weekend, in conjunction with Memorial Day, Grants Pass held it's 54th Annual Boatnik Event!

Nate worked, literally, ALL weekend, but our sweet neighbor, Lisa,

invited me along so that I could experience the joy and loudness that is Boatnik!

We walked down on Saturday to check it out and see a few of the races!

I took several photos and videos, so I'll just post them for your viewing pleasure :)

This first video was just exhibition race, and to me, looked like the most fun of them all!!

We were standing on the bridge for this next race - it was SO loud as the boat took off!

 

We walked around and ran in to people (I actually ran into someone I knew - yay!!)

and chatted and got to know one another - it was a lovely time!!

We actually had lunch on the lower deck of the restaurant in the above photo - it was lovely

 and is a MUST VISIT when you all come to town to see us - 

simply for the atmosphere of eating and relaxing along the river -
and the blue boats - yeah, that is something we're definitely doing this summer!
I'll keep you in suspense until we do - then you'll know what they're all about!

Today, (Monday, Memorial Day), the City had a small but lovely and touching program,

of which I was able to get a little bit of video ...

 







It was a really touching ceremony and I'm so glad that I was able to go
and make this day that much more meaningful!

After the ceremony, they geared up for the last race - it was a long race

that was run twice, so we only stayed through the take off of the second run!

 

 As you can see, it was a pretty eventful weekend and I'm so happy that I was able to go!

On a different note, I posted this picture on my Photography by Annie Blog 

and thought that I'd share it here, too. 

Collectively we have lost 9 loved ones over the course of our lives

and while they may not be here physically, we think and talk about them often,

and we love them and miss them.

Happy Memorial Day, Everyone!!

... The Kitchen ...

For some reason, Nate & I have the best time in the kitchen!

We don't get to cook together very often because of his work schedule,

but we both look forward to the nights that we have off together

and usually try to plan a more fancy meal or an experimental meal!!

A few weeks ago, we hunted down two or three different recipes

for sweet and sour chicken - we picked them apart and created

a super recipe for one of our very favorite dishes!!

(Although if you were to ask for the recipe, I couldn't give it to you,

because I don't think we ever really wrote them down as we were using them ...)

Anyway, here's a glimpse into our yummy Sweet & Sour Chicken!! :)

We decided to try out the coconut oil for frying up the chicken 

and we were both pretty happy with the results!

It was a pretty messy endeavor, but the end result was SO worth it!!

And here's a picture of us ... just because!!

Cathedral Hills

So Nate survived inventory - thank goodness -

and this last weekend, he finally had Saturday AND Sunday off!

On Saturday, we went to the Farmers Market 

and then spent a little time cleaning up the back 'yard' -

and on Sunday, we decided we wanted to do some exploring,

and at the suggestions of some locals we ended up hiking at Cathedral Hills!

It was a BEAUTIFUL hike and we ended up being out for about 3 hours!

We met some lovely families on the trail and it was nice to chat with them

about other things to do in the area! 

Anyway, here are some pics (ok, there are more than 'some')

so that you can see just how beautiful was!!

We were SO intrigued by this next flower! 

The petals were two different shades of purples, 

and they were EVERYWHERE!

Nate's keen eye caught this beautiful flower in between all the trees -

I handed him the camera and I am so in love with this shot!

So sorry about the picture overload!

It was just TOO gorgeous and I'm so glad 

we brought the camera with us!

We had such a lovely time and we were so glad

that we finally had time to get up into the mountains!!