Today was our "looking towards the future" walk.  Because the walk through the Wilsonville Park is so nice, Sandy Reid turned it into a 5k with a 9K option.  Being it was such a beautiful day, I asked Dick if he wouldn't lead the 10k walkers on that walk, because we are really thinking of digging up one more kilometer and getting rid of the old Wilsonville walk that goes out over the I5.  We split up into three groups today, 10k with Dick, 5k with Joe and an exploratory walk with me.  
On a tip from a Wilsonville Walker, San Berry, we were advised to try out the park at the Water Treatment Facility.  What a treat!  We ended up taking a lot of pictures, so you guys can all preview it.  When we first took over the Wilsonville walks, we didn't know what to expect, and it's been expanding each year so that next year we will have 4 walks!  Anyway, Dick is saving me Wednesday, September 10 and I'm going to sanction it for a group event.  It should be a lot of fun, I just now need to get Sandy Reid to go over there...But if anyone has a name, send it along ... we are always open to suggestions.  It's going to be another great walk for our dogs too!

I was finally with Mike so he could point out the new Eagles next out in the snags.  so if you are doing our new YRE event there, ask some to point it out for you.  
The Refuge keeps getting better and better this time of the year.  As year, when the cut the grasses, it almost looked like the meadows got a shaving.  This summer, the grasses have added so much to the landscape.  The two ponds look magical with the tall grasses around the perimeter.  
After we headed over to Target for coffee at their Starbucks.  The manager there is going to see if he can get us a couple of big tables we can put together there on Mondays.  Hopefully we will hear from "Brad" soon.  Ah, remember, this week the Wednesday group is doing our Wilsonville Walk.  The dogs are definitely welcome to go on this walk and Sandy Reid made some great changes to the 5k to make it into a 9k.  So, that might be an option.

We had over 20 walkers that turned out for a nice walk in the sun today.  Geislla and her husband came with their two dogs, so we felt bad that we had to send them off to do our Town and Country Walk out of the YMCA, but the rest of us had a great time out there.  Quite a few of us had a binoculars with us and we were able to see the 2 eagles and their nest and one junior eagle flying around.  Sandy led the 10k around the first time and then Starr took the rest of the walkers on the second time.  Marge came, and can you believe it, she walked all the way out to the view point and back again.  What a trooper, and she's only 86.
We had Garrett in our group (Starr's grandson) who kept us up to date on the seed pods that are behind the leaves of the sword fern, the different ducks and then he told us a story about the flamingos.  He said they are only pink because of the shrimp that they eat, and if they didn't eat them they would be white..  We had a hard time believing that, but he was right.  So then I asked how do you get the plastic geese.  Without skipping a beat Max said "they are the ones who eat all of the plastic bags!"  
Mary Rose and Carolyn helped the Friends of the Refuge clean up, but then they joined us at the South Shore Cafe for lunch.  We had quite a few of us there, 11 of us.  There were so many beautiful pictures that I put them up under the picture page.
Have a great Mother's Day!

What a way to spend my second 34th birthday.  Linda, Duck Cay Florida

About half of our walkers have been really looking forward to seeing the paths open so they could do a 5k and then meet us for coffee.  We saw a "pair" of eagles out there and Mike was trying to show us where they are building their nest, but we couldn't spot it..  Hopefully, by our walk on Saturday, we will be able to point it out to everyone.  Sam opened the BBC for us today, but next week, it may either be Target or Al's, but I will let everyone know.

Linda has finally found her new pup and took him on the walk out of the YMCA and introduced him to the horse.  I'm sure we will see them both on a walk soon.  Congratulations!

What a neat birthday party, and we even got party favors.  We arrived just in time for lunch yesterday and we did the 5k down walk late in the afternoon, and I guess we saved the best for last.
If you go on the other side of the freeway you will see the part of Cresswell that wasn't hit by the economy, but they were hit with golfballs.  What a neat area.  It starts out with a nice walk around the lake and then you end up entering the housing development, which is only about 10 years old.  The houses can range anywhere from 350k up to over a million.  We talked to the residents who said they had no idea of how the values fared during the recent housing crisis, because no one moves.  They had the neatest hardware on their garage doors that made them look like carriage houses.  Because of the sunshine and the warm weather, everyone was out working in their yards, so we had a chance to talk to some of the residents and get the scoop.  
Great walk and a wonderful way to get in the spirit of Cinco de Mayo.