SHERWOOD MERRYWALKERS
happy birthday mike!!!!

Two walks went on today, the Heartbreaker in Portland (590 stairs!) and the flat walk in Hillsboro.  We had walkers in both places.  Starr went down and did the all of the stairs and the rest of us wimps went out to Hillsboro.  We took the picture before Diane showed up but there were 7 Merrywalkers in Hillsboro, plus 2 Merrywalker dogs and 1 Merrywalker in Portland.  OOps, I forgot, we also saw Sharon out there so there were 8 of us out there today.  Good job!  Tomorrow we all head out for a Valentine's day doing the Bill and Lou Ann's walk, and I guess you could call them the "Merrywalker Sweethearts".  
See you at the Y at 12:45 so we can start the walk on time.  There will be a 5k option and the 5k is one of the best parts .... hummm, well the other 6k is pretty darned good too!  Remember Merrywalkers, you get a discount of $2!

We had a 5k group, led by Joe Titone and a 10k loop (well sort of) led by Dick. And then there was Mary Ann and I way in the back playing catch up at all of the little detours.  When we got to Cook Park we couldn't believe our eyes.  Three, THREE, eagles.  Can you imagine?  What a glorious sight.  After we all headed over to Pacific Breeze for the #40.  That is the best:  a little bit of shrimp, beef, pork, lettuce, cucumber, peanuts over a bed of noodles.  Sounds great, doesn't it?  We loved it.  On the other hand, I thought I had burned the inside of my mouth on the soup.  I will definitely have to work out a deal on getting a different soup to go with that meal. 
Dick sent me his pictures from Saturday.  I added them to the Pre-Super Bowl Walk album. 

it was foggy at the Refuge today, in fact it was pretty tricky just getting the car into the parking lot.  But, as you can see, we had another great turnout.  Pam and Kathy walked ahead of the Snails, so we had 12 walkers and then Carolyn and Mike met us at the coffee shop.  I can't believe the Snails have been together for over a year now, and what good friends we have made.  Between walking slow and having coffee, we really get a chance to know everyone.  Tomorrow we are headed out to the show to see Precious.  We decided we wanted to see all of the nominated movies before the Academy Awards.  

This place is a must see.  http://www.nwtrek.org/ Angela and I headed up there early this morning and after doing the walk we took the tram around the park.  We so many animals that's it's hard to list them.  The natural trail was beautiful, even this time of the year.  One can only imagine what this place looks like in the summer, when everything is blooming.  After doing a 5k on natural trails, you headed into the park for some closeups of the animals.  Once we were done, we had a nice lunch and then boarded the tram for an hour, seeing elk, bison, mountain sheep, ducks and deer.  I knew I wanted to go there I was just glad that Angela said she would go with me.  

what would Super Bowl weekend be without the pre-Super Bowl walk, and today we did it in a group!  Of course I was in the way back of the group, but we had to do a detour to see the Valentine's house, don't you just love it!  And, have you ever wondered what those rooms were like that you could book at the Kennedy School, you can see the pictures right here.  They are really neat.  

We should just sanction these Wednesday walks.  Let's see, just from the Merrywalkers: Sharon Klein, Carolyn Evenson, Carolyn Uyemura, Starr, Mary Ann, Jane, Tom and Judy Mikel, Anila and Nare, Diane .... did I forget anyone?
We had a bit of rain, but not bad at all.  We had developed 3 groups of walkers, fast, slow and the ones in the back.  It's always fun and always enjoyable to catch up with everyone's news.  We talked about dogs, walks, aches and pains, publicity with Dar, a Molton Falls summer walk..and our early spring.  They might have seen the ground hog back East, but we are seeing some beautiful flowers and trees starting to bloom and bud.  Sometimes you just need to walk an extra 10k to make sure you get to talk to everyone!
This Saturday we are trying a new concept.  The "group walkers" are meeting at the Kennedy School at 10 a.m. and doing the pre-Super Bowl Walk.  It will be fun to see how many of us really do enjoy this group walking.  
In fact, tomorrow, the Thursday group has decided to move their walk time to 10 a.m. so that many of the Wednesday walkers could try joining them.  Tomorrow they will be doing the Carlton walk, which we did in the fall last year.  

Mike Uyemura and Vicki McCool won the $25 gift certificates from New Balance.  Congratulations!  Will also said that New Balance will give each volkswalker a $10 coupon off of any purchase, as long as the purchase was over $70.   We had about 20 members show up for the meeting, so it was a great turnout .  Thanks Will!  Next month we will have Dr. Rachael.
We are going to be trying something new this month.  When the minutes are ready, we will put them on the web so you can have a chance to see what happened and what is going to happen.  We have some great events that we are working on and the first one being The Great Easter Egg Hunt on March 27th. 
Remember your dues needs to be paid by March 1st so we can make up the new membership list.
WEDNESDAY WALKING:  we will meet at 9:10 at Albertson's in Tigard.  Let me know if you are coming so we can figure out how many drivers we will need.

We only have 12 in the picture, but 13 were actually on the walk.  Mike and Carolyn joined us right after the picture and Pam started the walk but headed back because she was having some pain. She took a fall over a week ago and is still feeling it.  But we all headed back to the coffee shop for some nice conversation.  We did see a hawk today, salamander and quite a few geese.  The little pond where we used to see the bullfrogs was the fullest we had ever seen it.  Aha, we also saw a heron perched on the top of a tree.