My Portland

I'm home again visiting family and I am once again in love with my home state. Not that I ever fell out of love, but I'm back in infatuation stage. For those of you not from here, the picture above looks out from OHSU hospital on the top of the hill. The wires you see here belong to the tram that you can ride from the bottom of the hill up to the top. Here's a closer look at the tram:


As you can see, it's an amazing view. Sean and I decided to go for a run yesterday. We ran down the hill from OHSU and then back up again. It was about 5.5 miles all told and my pace was actually really good! Here's an above view of the road:


Though the hills truly kicked my butt, I hardly noticed because the view and the weather were so spectacular. Growing up in Oregon (and now living in Minneapolis) I've learned to truly appreciate the weather when it is good. And right now, it is SO good.

ONE MORE UPDATE!

I'm less than $100 away from my goal for today! I set a goal to raise $3000 by today and I'm getting so very close. The finish line is only a few weeks away now. Again, thank you so much to all of you who have donated! I'm so very grateful for your support.

70% down!

The final few weeks are upon us! I'm so excited to report that I've passed the 70% mark for fundraising! And though it's really exciting to be this close, I'm not at the finish line yet.

Just as with my training routine (which has taken me to a couple of 10-mile-runs) I've come so much farther than I ever thought possible! From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!!

More to come a little later on my beautiful runs in Portland as I'm here visiting family. . .

Oh so funny

Scenes from Lake Harriet

As I've said before, we're truly spoiled being able to run around the lakes here in Minneapolis. And now that the weather is getting warmer, the lakes are coming alive! At any time of day, there are tons of people out, running, walking their dogs, roller blading and biking. It's rather invigorating and always lifts my spirits.

One of my favorite places to go is Lake Harriet (pictured above). In the summer, they have live concerts at the bandshell, there's a park nearby and they sell ice cream too. All good things!

There's also the old streetcar nearby that is still run by volunteers. Last summer, Nana came to visit and we took a ride:


But absolute favorite part about Lake Harriet is the "little elf" that lives in the bottom of the tree on the opposite side of the lake. His name is Mr Little Guy and he's been living there for as long as most people can remember. When I was there a few days ago, kids had left a bunch of presents for him. Here's his house:


If you open the door, there are two bags of letters; one bag of letters to Mr Little Guy and one bag of letters from Mr Little Guy. One of the letters I saw asked Mr Little Guy what his favorite sport was. Of course, his answer was "elf ball".

Whenever I run around Lake Harriet, there's always a crowd of people at Mr Little Guy's house. I always wonder how he gets in and out without anyone seeing him. But he does and I love it. Long live Mr Little Guy!

I'll leave you now with a self-portrait of running. Love live the run!