Four Part Harmony

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a nice end to 2007 and beginning of 2008!

Here’s some photos from our first day of the new year…

After a nice pancake breakfast, we bundled up and drove out to the Portland Audubon Society’s bird sanctuary. We weren’t really sure if there would be anyone up there, being New Year’s Day and all, but we figured it would be a nice place for a hike if nothing else. It was clear and cold and windy, which was actually a nice change of pace from rainy and gray.

As it turned out, there were some Audubon volunteers up there, and they were bringing the birds out and giving little interpretive talks . Here’s Anna and I with ‘Julio’ the great horned owl. We also saw a peregrine falcon, a red-tailed hawk, a spotted owl, a pygmy owl, and a turkey vulture. The great horned owl was “hooo”-ing a lot, which we learned was because this is the time of year they are staking out their territory.

We checked out the birds for a while, then went for a little hike on the trails surrounding the sanctuary, which backs right up to Forest Park. Anna, as always, found a good walking stick early on. There are a lot of trails up there to explore, and we checked out leaves and mushrooms and trees and mud for quite some time.

We left there pretty tired and hungry. After a few thwarted attempts to find a place to eat, we finally ended up back at home and everyone got what they needed most…a nap for Anna, a pseudo rest/nap for Nicki, and some guitar tinkering for myself.

Then Anna woke up, and she decided that she needed to go to the beach.

First she pulled out her little beach chair. Then she convinced me to go upstairs with her and help her get her swimming suit on. Then she needed a beach towel. Then she convinced Nicki to go upstairs and get her sun hat and glasses.

It’s a shame I couldn’t get a better picture, but the light was no good and I just couldn’t get her to hold still. Still, the juxtaposition of christmas tree and summertime decked out Anna was just too much to pass up.

If the rest of 2008 is half as much fun as today was, I think it’s going to be O.K.