After we took the picture, Laurel and her husband Scott showed up for the walk.  this is the first time for Scott and the first time for Denise.  Denise just joined our club at the last meeting.  
It was a bit chilly out there today but we always have fun laughing and talking.  The owl was back in his tree and we took a great shot of a heron from the first bridge.  
Target is still the meeting place, but we keep hearing that someone has bought the coffee shop, but today, when I went by, I thought I saw a For Lease sign up, but that could be the place right next door.  Hopefully they will get it open before our Easter Egg Hunt.
Sandy said she is finished with the 5k directions on the Wilsonville walk, so maybe next week we might just take a field trip out there on Wednesday.  Milo and I are definitely going, but it has to be early in the morning, since Mary Ann has set up some movie watching in the afternoon.  We are trying to get ready for our Academy Awards evening.

He's just getting back into the swing of things and walked on Sunday, and it was his first "walk" in a long time.  Welcome back to the trails!

Regina, our 5k leader, aka the star of the 2011 Starting Point, led the walk to the new park and back.
10k went past that park,  but then went on to a different new park. Rick Catron, the current present of the Gresham Group lead the 10k Not only is he the elusive Rick, but he also does many of the volunteer efforts to improve the parks and trails of Gresham.  He was a wealth of information on what is on the books for the town of Gresham.  I guess it helps because he does work for the city!  
It started as a partly cloudy day, but the sun came out ..and everyone wished they wore one less layer. Everyone talked about their future plans for trips, visited, etc.  It's always fun to get out and get together.---Angela

Today we welcomed Elmer into the Merrywalkers and it was only his second walk and we started  him off right with his books and getting stamped!  There were so many Merrywalkers out there today, it was a beautiful day to walk.  We prepared ourselves for rain, and it was warm and no rain at all.  The Merrywalkers had over 40 people on the walk today and we were able to show off our new start box, which was in the North entrance, but it will be moved this week to the main entrance.  It's easy to spot and the hospital built us a great box.  They still need to make an envelope drop, but it should be done when they move the box over.  Now we only have maybe a 1/2k that walks along the loud 65th Av., but maybe next year, we can figure out a way to bypass it.  The walk offers a 6k loop and a 4.5k loop, but the 6k loop is by far the most scenic.
Thanks to all of you who came out for our "inaugural walk."  We have done a couple of walks in 2010 to see if the walk worked, but today was the first time we did it as a group.  After we headed over to Panera Bread, which was good, but too crowded.  By the way, get well Joe!

As you can see, we had quite a few people show up again for the walk and even a couple of new ones.  We met Elmer, who is talking with Ed in the photo and we were able to catch up with all of the Merrywalkers and the other walkers.  Lots of trips are being planned in the month of February.  Anila and Nare are heading off to Viet Nam while the Uyemuras are takiing off for Tucson this weekend.  Barb is also leaving sometime in February and I think they are headed up to Whistler for a few days.  We ended up going a bit longer on our 5k, but that was good, we enjoy doing a little longer than a 5k, but a little shorter than the 10k.  We met up at Pasta Pronto and they have new owners and a brand new menu.  A lot of us ordered the soup and salad and the soup came in a huge dish and most of us had to bring it home.  The bread was warm and the butter just melted on it.  The walk itself was really nice.  It was one of those nice urban walks that kept you behind the houses and on the paths that had a little creek running right next to you.  It as easy to split the walk up and do a 5k or a little longer.
Don't forget, Saturday we will be doing the 11k walk out of Meridian Park Hospital, their main entrance.  If you want to know anything more about the walk, go under the Events tab and check it out.  
See you on Saturday at 10 a.m.!

Thanks to Sandy Perky, the Snails have a new coffee place.  Target has a great Starbucks with enough seating.  Bill said that the coffee shop has been rented, so hopefully we can be back downtown soon.
Today we started off by singing Happy Birthday to Bonnie, who is one year older than me!  It was nice to see both her and Carol at the walk, since both are recovering from their respective surgeries.  Bonnie had the hip replacement and Carol had back surgery.  Both did very well out on the trail today.  We also were able to have a discussion on the mosquito fern, which an evasive water plant.  Check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azolla
When we got to Target we were happy to see Cheryl, Mike and Carolyn, so if you can't make it to the walk, at least join us for coffee!  And thanks Sandy for the great idea!

Total Number of walkers was 61(out of that 15 went on the 5k or longer) and there were Nineteen Merrywalkers showed up for the walk today.  Mary Ann, Donna, Carolyn, Mike, Sandra, Andrea, Bekki, Jane(2), Joyce, Diane and myself did the 5k, while Judy and Tom Mikel, Karen, Laurel, Mary Fribley, Barb Henson,  Kathy and Pam did the 10k, I know I'm missing someone, but I can't think of who.  It sure was fun getting out in that sunshine.  After the walk we ate at the Italian Deli and then we headed over to walk at Durham Park where the dogs are able to run free!  My god, there were so many dogs out there - it was a riot watching our "pack" out there playing in the mud.  By the way, Joe turned back at exactly 2.5K and the Merrywalkers decided it was so beautiful, we kept on going.  I mapped it out and we ended up doing 7k total, which for some of us, is perfect!

I was the only one to show up.  It was hot.  Had to look for clouds.  Aloha--- Dick