You can catch up on the previous three installments here, here, and here.

July

It was a fairly uneventful month, low-key and budget-conscious. We enjoyed the Fourth of July by going to the annual Pet Parade downtown, and then checked out the action in Drake Park before hitting up the Library book sale and the free day at the Deschutes Historical Society (with ice cream even!). I posted some pictures here.

The following weekend we hit up the Bend Summer Festival, which is always my favorite of Bend’s seasonal ‘fests. It’s always a fun time, and despite the temptation to spend a lot of money, there’s plenty of free or cheap fun to be had (like at the kids activity center, which is always free—not the inflatable slides and bouncy castles, but the area sponsored by Working Wonders Children’s Museum).

I didn’t make it to the Oregon Brewers Festival this year, which was too bad since I received an invite to a media preview that would have been very, very cool if I could have made it. Another year.

August

We checked out the Deschutes County Fair on the First, taking advantage of the family free day. It’s always a balance between the free stuff—checking out the animals, and the exhibits, which is my favorite part of the fair—and the gouging prices of, well, anything that costs money. Like the rides. And the food. It makes it tough to justify going every year.

Midway through the month we had to travel to Florida suddenly, on family business that there’s never a good time for. We were gone for about a week overall. Aside from the family affairs, I was again struck by how much I don’t really care for Florida. It’s hot, and humid, and flat, and did I mention hot and humid? And a lot of a strip-mall kind of vibe… too suburban, maybe.

No, I can tolerate visiting Florida occasionally… but there’s no way I could ever live there.

August is when job search results started coming in… ironically, I got several calls while we were in Florida and unavailable.

The end of the month, going into Labor Day weekend, was great: my brother and sister-in-law came up for a surprise visit from San Diego. They stayed with us the whole time, and it turned into a weekend-long party (albeit a kid friendly one). Lots of beer was consumed and it was the perfect way to end the month.