5K PR, parade, underground tour

Our Pendleton Fourth of July adventure was just getting started...

We got up early Wednesday and donned our best red-white-and-blue running gear to enter the Let'er Buck 5K Run, which, of course, started and ended at the Round-Up!

Our $25 fee not only paid our entry, we also received sweet tech tees and a "goodie" bag with a Round-Up bumper sticker, Round-Up event calendar and a Round-Up beer chip!!!!!

Mind you, it was 7 a.m. ;)

I had a great race! There were about 100 of us, some serious runners, others out for a nice walk with friends.

Having explored the day before on bikes, we knew most of the course, which had a couple short hills but was otherwise fairly flat. I decided to run hard and see what I could do.

I ended up slowing a bit and didn't have much kick left at the end, but I still finished in 26:33, an 8:44 average (the course was a tiny bit short). PR, baby! (Previous 5K race PR was 28:30/9:10 at the Heart Breaker)

After basking in our greatness for a few minutes, we went back to the hotel for quick showers before the big Fourth of July Parade!

Old Glory hanging over Main Street:

This smalll-town parade was everything I hoped for:

Rodeo court:

Happy Canyon princesses:

Little cowboy driving the pooper scooper:

Lots of guns on hand:

Yep. That's a Wal-Mart truck:

And a Hill's Premium Meats truck:

Even the firetrucks say "Let'er Buck"!

Pretty sure this John Deer costs more than our house:

This kid kept saying, "I need more candy!!"

We gave him all our candy, too:

Awesome :)

$5.99 lunch buffet at Big John's Hometown Pizza:

Then we returned to the Round-Up to watch more barrel racing. It was free, so why not?! (I'm not a big rodeo fan, but since the point of this event isn't to hurt the animals, I was OK with it)

Lots of raking:

It was all fun and games until one of the horses went down on barrel #3 - and didn't get up. I kinda freaked out and decided that I was right about rodeo all along. This sport isn't for me.

We'd read online about the Pendleton Underground Tours, and all reviews said it was worth the time and money, so we made reservations for the 1 p.m. tour.

For 2.5 hours, we toured under several buildings, learning about Pendleton's history of bars, brothels, opium dens, Chinese laborers and other fun stuff. It was fascinating! Definitely worth it.

Oh, I almost forgot out stop at Hamley's, where we browsed but did not buy any saddles, lassos or Western wear ;) 

Because our hotel was on a hillside overlooking the town, we watched the 25-minute fireworks show  in our pajamas - right from the window!

Then we slept in a bit Thursday before driving back to the big city.

It was a really fun, relaxing vacation - one of the best we've taken :)