I’m so thankful that November has so many exciting things (my birthday, Thanksgiving, BLACK FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!) that it’s easy to forget it’s also that bleak transition time where pretty leaves turn into an ugly, mulchy, wet mess and it’s dark ALL THE TIME. It’s so hard to say hello to winter and give up the glorious colorful days of fall.
So when there’s a pretty day we catch it. We savor it. We photograph it. And we hold onto it just in case the lights don’t come back again until spring. Thankfully it’s been lovely lately. We had such a nice day at the Woodland Park Zoo recently because it was sunny and a lot of animals were out and about. We even saw a python yawning.
The baby small-clawed otters were frolicking in their cute little pack of 5.
My favorite zoo-keeper, the penguin keeper was out and keeping his penguin buddies entertained while he fed them their fish. (The penguin-feeding is so fun to watch and if you want to feed the penguins yourself it’s quite reasonable at $5 for 4 fish 11am-2pm from November-April.)
We also had fun watching a hippo with a toothy grin. (Apparently they can snap alligators in half with those ginormous jaws.) So that was a very satisfying zoo adventure.
We also found gorgeous golden leaves at our last soccer game. Surprisingly we only had one game this season with intolerable rain and this was a perfect finish.
And we’ve been looking for new parks and activities to run out all this energy now that our favorite sport is over. I’ll let you know what new sport we’ve taken up soon-I’ll give it a couple weeks to see if it really sticks.
And since it’s hot chocolate time too the hubby brought me home a hot chocolate treat from my favorite Dahlia Bakery. And though it barely survived the bike-ride home, it tasted like true love. (FYI: My hubby bike rides to work ALL YEAR ROUND so please watch out for him and his biker-friends on the streets out there.)
So yes, it’s 6 weeks until Christmas, but who really cares. According to Costco, by the time it get’s here, it will already be Valentine’s day. I prefer totally living in the now. (Icky leaves and all. ) Happy Friday!
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
This fall day looks like it was a fabulous one!