Another bike ride...this one more manageable

The weather in Portland this weekend was, in short, glorious. It was blue skies, sunny, 55 (maybe 60?) degree, long-sleeve tshirt in the shade, tshirt in the sun weather. Yeah!! And for November!! Needless to say, we decided on Sunday that we had to take advantage of this gift we'd been given. I had heard from a number of people that biking around Sauvie Island, just north of Portland, is a "must." So, bike around it we did - a popular 12-mile loop that THANKFULLY did not involve any hills. It was some of the most beautiful farmland I've seen, and with all of the fall colors still out, it was quite a site.

We managed, by popping the front tires off our bikes, to get both into our small-ish sedan. (Which is going back to Seattle on Thursday, to be replaced with...oh, you'll have to wait. I'll dedicate a whole post to it! I take that back, Kyle probably will!)


Not even 5 minutes into our ride, we had to pull over. There was a crowd of about 150 people gathered at a cornfield, complete with BBQ, music via loudspeakers, the works. It looked like one of those super corny yet totally fun company get-togethers. We watched them for a while and then finally realized they were about to do a cornfield maze race! Some teams were even dressed up in costume - can you spot Thing 1 and Thing 2?

So, we waited for the corn maze race to start. And waited a little more. Finally, the announcer (yes, there was even an announcer at this event) yelled "3...2....1..GO!" and everyone started running....right past the entrance to the corn maze. Hm. Turns out it was just a 5K, which happened to be starting 500 feet from the entrance to a corn maze. Alrighty then! Moving on.

The rest of the bike ride was marked by varying views of Mount Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Adams. Check out this picture of Mount Hood in the background:

What I loved about Sauvie Island is that it took us about 20 minutes to get there from our apartment, which is right in Portland. So, 20 minutes outside of the city and you find this beautiful - oasis is the only word I can use to describe it! - of wide open fields and farmland.
There were a few cattle farms, one where Kyle made friends with a GINORMOUS bull:We loved their neat mailbox:

Lazy moo-cows soaking up some warm afternoon sun:

Beautiful open pastures:

Me on the one road that wound through Sauvie Island (or, visual example of how a bike helmet looks on someone who doesn't come by biking naturally):

Kyle during our "breather"... that I've obviously requested (or, what a bike helmet looks like on someone to whom biking comes very naturally):

If you live in Portland and haven't been, GO TO SAUVIE ISLAND! If you don't live in Portland, I hope you enjoyed the pics!!!