We celebrated Don's birthday down at the coffee shop today and we also welcomed a new member, Jane Montgomery.  A nice walk today, but no wildlife.  We did see a couple of wild flowers, but it's always fun just talking on the trail and back at the coffee shop.  We have so many things going:  next week Orcas and Whidbey, the following week the Dahlia Event, Jacksonville coming up and then we will end this craziness (well maybe) in Astoria.  

About a dozen of us did the 10K and another dozen the 5K in delightfully cool, partly cloudy conditions.  Lots of window shopping and delicious aromas made us grateful for the group willpower that none of us as individuals would have exercised.  The lake at Laurelhurst is being drained, with the waterfowl safely relocated.  Apparently the decades of silt have made it necessary.  It's a bit stinky, but interesting to see.  Guess we'll have to go back and do it again when it's all completed and lovely.  It's always a treat to see the grand homes and bright tended gardens along the way. ---Barb Ness

It has to be the restaurants!  You get to socialize, exercise and take in some of the best restaurants in Portland and today's choice was excellent.  Otto and Anita's, which is located in Multnomah Village, http://ottoandanitas.com/ where you can feast on their daily specials which included stuffed cabbage rolls, swiss chicken or wiener schnitzel and for your side there is dill pickle soup (with real dill pickles in it!).  Rita and Larry bought one of the desserts and we passed it around, but we were all so full from lunch, many of us had to bring bags home for later.  We had a chance to walk around the village and check out all of the neat shops:  Annie Bloom's (one of the all time favorite locally owned book shops), Peggy Sundays, Birdies and Thinker Toys.  You had a lot to choose from.  So in addition to great company, food, your daily exercise, we also had a chance to tour a part of Portland that you may or may not have been familiar with.  I wonder if that's why we have so many showing up on those Wednesay walks?  Another great choice Dick.

Because of the huge interest in doing this walk, Dick was nice enough to repeat the walk today.  I don't know all of the names so I'm not even going to try.  I did see Sue from Monmouth, Judy, John, and Katie and so many more, but you had another beautiful day.  I added the pictures to the ones from yesterday, so have a look.

Dick did a great job of organizing this walk today.  There were 4 groups, 2-10K groups and 2-5K groups.  We all passed each other along the way and I think everyone had a great time.  I have to hand it to Rose, Vera and Barb: YOU DID IT AND IT WASN'T EASY!  Mary, from Longview and brought Carol and her 2 grandkids from Seattle.  Heidi was nice enough to include Portlandia in our adventure.  I think everyone had a good time playing "echo" and the Spaghetti Factory was good.   Everyone is loving these Wednesday walks.

Hello!  So many pictures I tried to delete some of them...but I had such a great time & enjoyed the walk so very much it was hard...so pick and choose! 
Sorry I missed you again Jane, but I did see Mary Ann & the girls...at the "hill"! 
Dick, for me the walk today was surely in my top 10 of all my walks...Thnak YOU so very much for a fun, informative, friendly & beautiful walk of our city!!!
 .....Starr 

It was hot!  The only thing we saw out there today were some huckleberries.  We did meet a gal out there today from Everett,  Carol.  She happened to be in town visiting her daughter, and on the way back, she decided to go to the Refuge.  She ended up coming for coffee and wants to know if there are any volkswalks near her.  So we gave her our card and said she should meet us in Coupeville! Stay cool out there today, better weather is on the way.  It's supposed to be in the low 70s this weekend, so dust off those chili pots.