Dog Days of January

January has been unusually dry, I think the news said we’ve only had half the average rainfall this month. We’ve also had a good number of sunny days.

On Sunday we had a needed sleep-in day, then gave dog a Dog-centered day. We went to one of the nice dog parks (5.5 fenced acres) where he got to spend 45 minutes romping with other dogs and get just a little muddy (it might have been dry that day but that doesn’t mean it has been a rain-free month). Then we went on a 2 hour hike in Forest Park. We were hoping Dog would be a little worn out after the dog park (he normally is on the sleepy side after such an outing) and not tug during our hike. But true to form he tugged more often than we liked on our hike.

Now our St. Louis friends might be thinking hike? Forest Park? See Portland’s Forest Park is literally a 5,000+ acre forest. It is beatiful, fairly quiet (though you can still hear traffic in some areas) and just the right amount of nature for me, close, accesible but not overwhelming.