Sehome hill & Sculpture Garden Trailblazer hike

A small group for this beautiful day after Christmas hike. 4 women and our fearless leader Pat. 

We parked at the Rotary trailhead parking lot off of Bill McDonald pkwy.

We walked along the Bill McDonald pkwy for a bit and then joined the Connelly Creek trail. 

It goes by Joe's Garden, which looks like it's been turned over ready for this spring's plantings.

we crossed the road on Sehome hill and saw this sight, I love the trees draped over the road -

We were now in the Arboretum.

We stopped for lunch at the tower, with it's panorama view.

click on the photo below to enlarge the panorama 

as we were leaving the arboretum, we came to the reservoir and saw these wonderful murals on the walls.

 

click on the photo below to enlarge the panorama

We were now at the Western Washington University campus, 

our hike today included the Sculptures that are at the campus.

just some of the wondrous things we saw -

we even went into the Geology building to look at rocks and fossils.

Awesome, a visual delight today!
Endomondo stats:
6.93 total miles hiked
90 Min. altitude
635 Max. altitude
530 Total ascent
548 Total descent

Happy Holidays from us!

Picture of the week - Christmas snow

Thought I'd start something new today. Each week, 

I will post my favorite picture that I took while I was out & about.

Since I was so happy we got our predicted snow at Christmas time,
the first week's photo will be -
"Holiday snow"

Galbraith Mtn. Trailblazer hike

10 of us cheery souls met today & drove to the Birch st. access for our Galbraith mountain hike. This area is predominantly known  for being a Mountain biking area, but today we claimed it as a hiking paradise.

It was a bit chilly today and we were well bundled up in our layers.

not far up the trail we passed a tree that someone had decorated festively for Christmas.

The trails have wonderful names, some of the ones we passed were:

Family Fun Center 

There to Here

? (yes that's all that was on the sign board)

Candy

I loved how these tree roots embraced this rock.

we also saw some interesting frost that looked like fur, Owen blew on it to prove that it would indeed melt.

There were a few viewpoints, but the hike was mostly in a fern filled forest.

we ate lunch at about the 4 mile point and I checked my phone's AccuWeather app and it said it was 30 degrees & the real feel was 23. We all agreed. Brrrrrr.

Lots of fun visiting and laughing today. Marijke topped it off by having us do a group hug, 

where we  wished each other a Merry Christmas.

Endomondo stats:

7.2 total miles hiked

 448 Min. altitude

1366 Max. altitude

878 Total ascent

890 Total descent

Out and About

I put together some photos of some interesting sights we've seen 

on some of our rides lately. 

Of course since Christmas is nearly here, 

we see the occasional tree decorated along the road.

Every time we drive by this old shack I want to take a photo of it, I finally did! 

I'd like to talk with it about what kind of a life it's had. Oh the stories it would probably tell.....

of course we went birding ;-)

and we saw many, many Snow Geese -

Here's a video, you can watch them fly and hear how noisy they are!

we were heading home at just the right time to see  a rosy Mt. Baker above the Blueberry fields.

and now that the N'east winds have left us, and it's beginning to warm a bit, today we got a little snow!

Keep out ;-)

This is what is hanging on the door to my "Creativity" room.

Am I ever a busy girl!!!!

Little do they know.....

Our first real winter blast is supposed to start today.
My weather app had this to say for an alert in our area:

and this is our week's weather prediction:

I was out for a walk and saw these cows calmly sitting in a corn field.

Little do they know....

Oyster Dome, our Thanksgiving day hike

We had our family Thanksgiving last weekend, so we went hiking today! We decided to hike to Oyster Dome, then to Lily lake and back to the Samish overlook via the Larry Reed trail.

What a beautiful day here -

I took this picture on the road, just before we got to the overlook.

click to expand this panorama photo

Panorama photo of the overlook parking area

Me, at the Oyster Dome viewpoint

Since it was Thanksgiving we brought our stove and had a proper cup of tea with our lunch!

Can't get a better view for lunch -

I love this sea of ferns in the forest -

our road crossing -

When we arrived back at the overlook the sun was beginning to set. If you click on the picture below to make larger, you'll see Mt. Rainer in the distance.

I got a sneaky picture of my husband enjoying the setting sun -

and finally a panorama of the gorgeousness - 

On this day of Thankfulness ~ I'm thankful I spent the day at a beautiful place with someone I love.

6.8 total miles