One day later...

...it's cold and sunny and just beautiful!

It's cold outside! :)

First snow of the season!

Got in 9.3 miles on my run/walk/hike this morning - staying up on the gravel road, for it was safer with temps right around freezing and forecast for lower...

This was the end of November...

...it was foggy, sunny, both, and warmer than the usual last-day-of-November!

One of the neighbors' trees is covered in bright, red berries. And the dew was heavy!

Another view, going up towards the ridge...

The last of the tansy, and some cider apples in a few rows that haven't been picked yet. We've not had a heavy frost, and that may be what they are waiting for? And the goats were out in the front pasture again!

Some pea family plants are finishing up, and the grapevines were bare and wet.

More views along the ridge:

The last of the roses are still blooming...

Coming down the ridge is the pear orchard...

More flowers, hanging on as long as the weather is mild. And the hazelnuts are starting to pollinate.

Next stretch of road is an out-and-back -- I was getting the last of the flowers, plus pictures of the field of geese near 'my' school. There must have been close to 1000 of them -- connecting groups and lines of geese going allllll the way across the field. And more flying in to join them!

Back at the geese, my camera was telling me the battery was giving up, so the rest of the run is without pics. A good run - and unseemingly warm for the last day of November!

Portland Turkey Trot 2008

What a fun, fun tradition! This year the tradition was even better, for my friend, Tonya, got to join me! The race starts at the Forestry Center, runs down to the Rose Garden, turnaround at the parking lot of the Japanese Garden, then back UP to finish inside the zoo. There were over 2300 preregistered runners this year, biggest yet. Plus lots more doing the race day registration, for the weather was dry and sunny!!! At least for the race...

The first pic is looking towards the start -- they did start in two waves this year, but I think it needs to be a little more organized even yet. One problem was that the porta-potty lines went across the start area. You can see it was sunny and upper-30Fs.

Here we are, waiting to start. There aren't numbers on the bibs - they just say gobble, gobble, gobble...
The first half of the race is down hill!

Almost to the turnaround, we had a view of Mt. Hood, and the clouds were starting to build up in the sky. Mt. Hood is behind that tall building, in the far distance, that your eyes pick out better than the camera!


What goes down, must go back up...

The finish was extra crowded. Traditionally, the zoo is almost empty - if you're wearing the "gobble gobble gobble" bib you get in free, and everyone else pays full admission. This year, the zoo was open to anyone, as a way to say thank you for getting a bond levy passed for zoo improvements. The runners each got a coupon for free zoo entry until the end of March.

After finishing, we did a fun zoo tour! Portland Zoo has a new baby elephant!

There's an aviary of African birds -- beautiful birds! My camera doesn't it justice --

Hippopotamus, giraffe, bats...

Reptiles, meerkats -- the paper mache turkeys in the meerkat enclosure were given to them on Wednesday, with animal treats inside...

And the Portland zoo has a great penguin exhibit!

We fit right in! Nothing like being a penguin!

More zoo animals...

The zoo gift shop...

This is the logging train exhibit by the Forestry Center. When we came out of the gift shop to head to the car, it was raining a really cold rain. Perfect timing for the race and zoo tour!