14 freakin' miles!

I can't believe it has been such a long time since I blogged. Well, the truth is we have been slackers. My mom has kept up with her cross training but she and I have been doing quite a bit of traveling and have neglected the training plan (see pic below for an illustration).

But as of today we are back in the game! We walked 14 miles! My mom is currently soaking her weary bones in the tub, she even had the shower curtain pulled so I guess she needs her private time.

Early this morning I woke up with a headache and got sick so I figured I was not going to be able to walk. My mom woke me up at noon and I don't know why but I got up and went with her. We had decided that we were tired of the inner harbor walk so we were going to travel north of Baltimore and try out this trail someone recommended to my mom (http://www.dnr.state.md.us/greenways/ncrt_trail.html)

The weather was perfect, not hot at all. The trail was mostly full of cyclers. As I told my mom I will probably dream of someone yelling behind me "To your left!".

There were mile markers which was more of a curse than a blessing. We made it fine to the seventh mile marker but we began to slow down as we headed back. The trail was less exciting then our usual urban trail. Not as many exciting things to see. At the end of the trail we did see a lady carrying her cat in a duffel bag and a man on unicycle. We also saw a butterfly with half of it's wing gone. I was trying to think of some poetic thing to say about it but I can't think of anything (see pic below).

After we finally arrived back at the car, we headed straight to Noodles and Company and got some delicious pasta.

Tomorrow: 10 miles and we will be walking locally.

Blogging does not equal walking

I have neglected to write on the blog for the last couple of weeks but we have still been walking so do not fear.

This weekend we are headed to Pasadena, CA to visit my brother and his wife. We are supposed to walk 12 and 7 miles. I am currently looking up how we might accomplish this but I really have my doubts.

Home from Camden Yards (6 miles)

After a very disappointing O's game (17!!!!!!!! to 8) my mom and I walked home. It was a little more than five miles but we just rounded it off to 6. Close enough.

We have decided to stick the same circuit for all our walks for the following reasons:
1) Its much cooler to walk close to the water.
2) We should take advantage of living so close to the water by enjoying it on these walks.
3) This way our walks are mindless and we don't waste time looking at a map.

The bad thing is:
1) Less exciting things happen when you go through the same areas and see the same stuff so there is less to report on the blog.
2) All our walks run together so its hard for me to remember what made today's walk any different from yesterdays.
3) I will prob fall into the water one of these days due to my frequent stumbles when my legs get weak.

After walking 10 yesterday, today seemed like a breeze. I never thought I would think walking 6 miles (really 5) was a breeze.

Its getting tough! (10 miles)

We both collapsed on the floor when we came home at around 8:45 tonight. The idea was to do some stretching immediately before my mom made us both a large mojito, but once we were horizontal there wasn't much movement going on. Mikey thought we were playing a game and brought us his bobo (a stuffed animal version of himself).

We completed 10 miles today. We weren't able to walk this morning because our church had its free school supply store. After we were done with that, we had to wait for the temperature to go down so my mom and I went to Target to see if they had restocked the margarita mix buckets my dad likes so much (I know, I live with what would seem like alcoholics, but they just like the lame fruity stuff so I am not worried). Target disappointed us yet again. It seems they are so involved in their remodeling that they have forgotten about all the quasi-alcoholics who need their slushy drink fix before bed.

All day I was in denial about the fact that by the end of the day I would have walked 10 miles. My mom and I decided that we needed a nap before we could begin but once we laid down we realized it was already five o'clock, time to get started!

My dad walked with us for the shortest distance ever...wimp!

We walked to the Maryland Science Museum and ate dinner at the food court in the inner harbor. I had subway and my mom had pizza (and we wonder why we haven't lost any weight since we started this thing).

The inner harbor was full of people today, not exactly sure why, I guess everyone is getting all their outdoor time in since the summer is coming to a close. The S. S. John Brown 441' Liberty Ship (a.k.a. ginormous ship) was parked in the middle of the inner harbor and was open for tours but my mom and I decided to pass, we were on a mission.

A plane flew by with a banner that said "will you marry me?" and we passed two wedding receptions. The second one we passed the bride and groom were getting their pictures taken. Its always so exciting to unexpectedly be a part of someone special day!

During our walk home we made some phone calls and arraigned for everyone to be in L.A. for labor day weekend, and by everyone I mean the whole Graves clan.

In other important news, we stopped at a public bathroom, my mom used the chap stick in the satchel, we drank two bottles of water each, and we found a penny that will go towards my mother's fund for breast cancer.

It took us a total of 3 and a half hours to walk 10 miles. I am really hoping that I have a job and have moved far far away by the time my mom has to walk 18 miles.

Same ol' Same ol' (5 miles)

All I can say about our walk today is that we did it. We are getting tired of our typical walk to the aquarium, so we are going to need to spice things up a bit.

But today we did the same ol' same ol' with the can collector and I didn't eat anything before we left so by the time we stopped at Rita's on the way back I was hungry enough to eat an entire large strawberry gelati.

So, since there is no walking news I will update you on my job-seeking news. Well...there is no news. I am still looking for a job and if you are the praying kind please pray that something opens up soon.

This weekend we walk 10 miles on Saturday and 6 miles on Sunday.

A backwards loop (6 miles)

Did I say we had to walk 7 miles today? Well, I meant 6. My mom and I discuss our mileage about ten times a day and I still forget how far we need to go. We decided to walk down Fleet St. and then back by the water.

It was really humid today so we waited until later in the afternoon to leave on our walk. My dad decided to go with us but didn't bring Mikey with him because according to my dad "he can't keep up". My dad collects cans when he walks with us and its like a little kid on an Easter egg hunt. I point one out ahead of me and he runs to crush and collect it.

The good thing about my dad being on a walk with us is that he will go into Rite Aid for us to get water. The bad thing about it is that my dad buys the cheapest water available which is the flavored kind. He told us that the regular water wasn't cold. Likely story.

I know I have said before that my dad likes to talk but I like to talk too, so on this walk he was kinda hogging my talking time. If you were to see my mom and I on our walks you would probably see me waving my hands in the air explaining something to my mom or telling her some story about my life which she probably already knows. We went to see Julie and Julia the other night and again there was another depiction of the "annoying mom" on the big screen. Its always the same. The mom calls the young independent women at the most inopportune time and wants to interrupt her life with some annoying family news or complains about how the daughter never calls. It is really annoying to me because this is not what it is like with me and my mom at all. Maybe its because my mom is awesome and I am really lucky. So, on these walks I look forwards to the automatic built in talk-time with my mom. But today my dad and I had to share.

We found a total of 5 individual pennies today that will go towards my mother's fund for breast cancer research. My dad said we shouldn't expect to raise the rest of her $1,000 this way but you never know...

To the Museum of Industry (8 miles)

My mom woke me up this morning at 8:30 a.m. We ate some breakfast and about the time we were getting ready to go, my dad came downstairs and asked if we would wait for him so that he could walk with us on his way to the gym. We waited patiently for him to eat his breakfast and as we were leaving for the second time my dad said he needed to go put a letter in the mailbox. We told him we would meet up with him on Ellwood. When we looked back to see if he was there, he waved us on saying "Ya'll go ahead, I am going to go and get Mikey up". Men.


So by ten o'clock we were on our way! Today we had to walk 8 miles which meant we were going passed the Aquarium to the Museum of Industry (http://www.thebmi.org/). I think it's safe to say most people do not come to Baltimore to visit this museum. The only reason I have heard about it is because a friend told me that she held her wedding reception there.



We stopped by the farmer's market at harbor east and got peaches that we didn't bother washing before we ate so if we get sick it will be organic sickness, which I have never had before so it was worth the risk.



We continued on. We had no clue how long we would be able to walk along the water after passing the science museum but you can actually go a long way. You can walk along side of all these new developments until you reach a sort of loading dock/parking lot thing. At this point we looked really confused and this young guy in a golf cart asked if he could help us. We asked if he could tell us where the museum of industry was in relationship to where we were. He looked at us like we were lost tourists and said "well, its right there" as he pointed over the fence. "OK, thats close enough, we just needed to walk 8 miles so I think we can turn back now" I said to my mom who agreed. The young guy offered us a ride to the museum on his cart which was tempting but I am pretty sure that if we had sat down on that thing we would have tried to hijack it and drive it all the way home. As the boy began to drive away it hit him and he said "wow, 8 miles is a long way!". No kidding.

We were headed on our way back but first stopped at a little shop to get water but after being offered a free sample decided to have a little sherbet (pink grapefruit and wildberry).


OK, so now I am going to insert some helpful advice. Since this whole crazy walking thing is because my mom is raising money for breast cancer research, I think it is an appropriate blog to share my feelings about sports bras.

On these walks my mom and I see a lot of fellow exercisers who are usually runners and when these runner are women I have noticed that on many occasions they are not taking good care of their belongings. Ladies! Lets please keep our bosoms close to our hearts by wearing a TIGHT sports bra that keeps everything from bouncing around from your chin to your navel. PLEASE! Besides the fact that its unsightly for those around you it can't be good for your boobs! And that's all I will say about that.

The rest of the walk home went by pretty quick. On the way home we hardly ever stop because we are so ready to be home. Tomorrow we walk 6 miles!