A Very Sunny Day!

Gosh it was gorgeous today - we're not used to having blue skies and sun in the winter here in Portland. It was chilly this morning - 29F/-2C and there was some light frost. We're both "off" this week...keeping up with email but not working per se. So we took advantage of the non-rainy weather to go for a good long hike in the arboretum today. 

The Hoyt Arboretum is located just west of downtown Portland, within Washington Park and adjacent to Forest Park which is a huge city park (5100 acres). Some of the trails in the arboretum merge with the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park. The Wildwood Trail itself is 30 miles long and runs through the arboretum. If you're a hiker you might be interested in reading about the trail.  (Sorry, I'm having trouble with these links - I hope they work!) 

At any rate, that's all in saying that we took the bit of the Wildwood Trail that circles around the northeast boundary of the arboretum and had a fabulous walk. There were lots of other people walking too, but everyone was wearing masks and being respectful. It was about 2.5 miles and we did it in about an hour. (We did not walk the full 30 miles!) Great to be out!

Two shots from the arboretum today - the main blip is of this amazing cedar that has great lower branches...all worn down by children's bottoms I think :-)  It's just off the parking lot so close enough that children would find it. And the second shot is on the Wildwood Trail with tall Douglas Firs, at least on the left side. You can see what a spectacular day it was!