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!

We are still walking! (5 miles)

I know you have been waiting anxiously for this post but as I have said before I only post an entry when we walk...so I guess you can imagine what we have been doing, but don't judge! We have good reason to be lazy! My younger sister, Rachel just returned from a year-long internship with IJM's (www.ijm.org) office in La Paz, Bolivia.

So, the last time I went on a walk was last Thursday which was when Rachel called my mom's cell to say her flight from Miami to Baltimore was cancelled. We decided to call my dad to come pick us up so that we could be close to a computer in case we needed to buy an emergency "we have to see you tonight because we have been waiting so long to see you and we know you don't want to stay in Miami" ticket. Really, it was just an excuse to cut our walk short (I don't even remember how many miles we were supposed to walk).

Anyway, Rachel is here and after a week of goofing off we are back on track with the walking. My mom has changed her training schedule so we will only be walking on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, so plan your reading calendar accordingly!

Today we did our typical walk to the aquarium and back. Nothing eventful happened besides the fact that we decided to go see Julie and Julia (the new Meryl Streep movie) tomorrow.

This Saturday we have to walk 8 miles so I am hoping I will have some good stuff to post! Stay tuned! It helps to know that people out there care about our training!

From Little Italy to Camden Yards (3 miles-more like 2)

My dad decided that he wanted to go to the O's game tonight so I convinced my mom that our typical walk to the stadium (we usually park in Little Italy) and back was about 3 miles. It really is only 2 and of course we sat down for 3 hours in between miles...so today was a breeze!

The O's lost again to the Kansas City Royals 4 to 3 in the 11th inning. But the best part was that my mom and I got on the big screen! We were so excited! Even better was the fact that one of my friends and one of my mom's friends saw us! We are so awesome!

Thank goodness next week is light! (6 miles)

Sorry this post is late, this is what happened on Sunday...

As soon as we were headed out this afternoon it started pouring rain (YES!). My mom decided that she would just walk the 6 miles tomorrow, but it stopped raining and we went with my dad and Mikey for the first mile. We ran into one of my mom's nurse friends and her new baby (cute!).

Once we had completed our first mile (two time around the little park) my dad took Mikey home and actually walked the rest of the 5 miles with us!

When my mom and dad were first married my dad would visit my mom at her place of work which was some type of facility that helped people who were paralyzed (where it was isn't really important). The people at this place called my dad "radio" which is a very fitting nickname because my dad can talk constantly without needing any encouragement or acknowledgment. So, needless to say today was not a quiet walk.

We stopped in Fells point to get a lemonade which ended up turning into a hot-dog for each of us and a large lemonade to split.

I was surprised that we actually walked all the way to the aquarium after our meal. On the way back we stopped at Rita's and my parents go their favorite, a mango gelati with vanilla custard on top. I got a coke at Burger King.

It was good that we were with my dad because most of the way home was in the dark.

Next week we have a light schedule, the weekend includes a 3 mile day and a 4 mile day. We need the break.

Once around the park and to the aquarium (7 miles)

Today was our worst walk yet. We got a late start and it was already really hot when we left to do our first two miles around the park with Mikey in tow (we figure he could use the exercise). Poor little guy's tongue was dragging the floor when we dropped him off at the house to refill our bottles and walk to the aquarium for the remaining 5 miles of this 7 mile walk. It was disgusting. We would have loved some rain today.

Several times we took a shorter route because we were just so over the heat and walking (this was our quietest walk so far). We reached harbor east and saw that the farmer's market was still set up so we bought some blueberries and devoured them in less than one block. My mom saw a shoe sale and we decided to buy my dad yet another pair of dress shoes (somehow we have never recovered from the fact that it was so hard to find his size 13 when we lived overseas, so now every time we see his size we feel obligated to buy him a pair). You can see my dad's large foot on the left side of the picture of me and Mikey (a few posts ago).

So, then we had a shoe box to carry the rest of the way (at this point we decided to just head back since we could SEE the aquarium from where we were). This is when it really got quiet. We walked down Fleet street for a change but soon realized that they are way more hills than Eastern avenue.

We had planned on getting washed up and going to this french place for lunch, but on our return to the house I told my mom we should scrap that idea and head to Chick-fil-a instead (which kinda sounds french). My mom was game. She really likes their carrot salad and was really excited about it until she put a big spoonful in her mouth and realized it was spoiled. She proceeded to spit the carrot mess out while apologizing to me (she is a true southern lady)...all I could do was laugh my head off (I needed a good laugh). My mom then told the manager looking guy that the carrot salad was not fresh and he deferred to this less than manager looking guy who told my mom "well it was made this morning, ma'am", so my mom said "OK then, I will just sit back down and eat the rest of this crap you call carrot salad because if you say its fresh than you must be right"....no not really the manager looking guy offered her another salad which my mom was more than happy to accept (like I said she loves this stuff). Thankfully the new salad met my mom's standards. The manager looking guy really tried to suck up to my mom, offering to freshen her drink and the like, we are hoping the less than manager looking guy is no longer working there when we return.

Walking in the rain (5 miles-last 2 in the rain)

When my mom came home from work she had a quick snack and we were off to put in our 5 miles. We decided to walk around the whole park then down to the water to Wolf street and then back via Eastern avenue. We set out to the water first and then chucked the whole route (why we go through the trouble of planning, I don't know) and decided to go to the aquarium and back which my mom assured me was 5 miles.

The weather was pretty "iffy" but once we were on Eastern we were confident that we would make it home dry. We did not. A light rain felt good since it was muggy and we were hot from walking. We made it home fairly soaked but to a nice spaghetti meal that I had already cooked before we left (I have to pay the rent somehow). That is the key to having a good walk...always have good food waiting for you when you get home.

We found a dime today which will go towards my mother's fund for breast cancer research. Yay!

Concert in the park (3 miles)

Today we only had to walk 3 miles. We went all the way around Patterson park and then did an inside loop at which point will called my dad to bring the lawn chairs so we could sit and enjoy the free concert by the pagoda (yes, there is a pagoda in the park).

So...there isn't much to report...but my mom insisted that I report anyway. Aunt Lu and Aunt Marilyn; I am afraid this is not every worth the click you made on the link that directs you here from your e-mail. But keep reading...I am sure exciting things are sure to happen!

But so that this isn't a complete waste of your time, I will include a pic of the pagoda and another one I made tonight that I think you might enjoy...

Multi-tasking (5 miles)

This afternoon we went our typical "by the water" route. My dad and our friendly (not really) dachshund walked with us until we got to the water. We finished our large bottle of water by the time we separated and were happy to pass it onto to my dad to take home. I noticed that a few steps ahead of us was this family that I babysit for. In an attempt to avoid them (you know sometimes you just don't feel social) we took a route where we walked along the sidewalk and once we figured we had passed them we went back to the water but we had not lost them, in fact they were walking right passed us as we approached (but did not see us). We cut back to the main street and then looked ahead to see the family coming towards us. Turns out is wasn't all that painful to be social.

Today we decided we need to figure out how much mileage we are actually walking because once we get into the double digit mile days we will definitely not want to walk any extra than we already have to.

Today we walked to the bridge that leads to the Aquarium. We stopped in at a sushi place called Bamboo to get some bottled water. On entering, we discovered that this place serves way more than just sushi. It has a Mongolian stir-fry buffet deal where you can select all the veggies you want from the choices available then pick what meat you would like and viola! We decided we need to go there someday.

On the way home we stopped in CVS and got a bottle of Bio-oil that we saw advertised in Redbook. It claims that it cures everything (stretch marks, aging skin, dark circles under the eyes...). We will see. We also found my mom's Pantene "silver expressions" shampoo she has been looking all over for. Hurray!

We then decided we needed some things at Whole Foods which is right next door to CVS. We bought guacamole and cherries to take home but sat down and ate papaya and strawberries...yum! We got a lot of things done today on our walk. I think it may get to the point where we will need to stop and have a meal on those long walks. But I am sure I will let you know.

Walk to Artscape (6 miles)

Today we set out at around 11 a.m. to walk to artscape (http://www.artscape.org/index.cfm?page=plan) which is America's largest free art festival held in dowtown Baltimore. We calculated our route using mapmywalk.com which told us it would take 5.26 miles to get there but we like to walk along the water which we figured rounded it off to an even 6 miles.

This walk was fairly uneventful. My mom did ask to use the chapstick in the satchel which is the first time we have used any of the utilities we have packed.

We were starving by the time we reached artscape but had heard that they had North Carolina BBQ and thankfully found the culinary van parked not too far from where we entered. We decided we would try their sweet tea and were dumb enough to think that we would share one. We ended up buying three of them. But these weren't your typical sized cups, they were actually the family-sized tubs that you get at your local deli that had been cut at the lid to insert a straw (please see picture below).

So after we were full of tea and BBQ we set out to see the sites. We walked around looking at the typical jewelry, pottery, screen t's and other stuff you see at these things and as we were checking out the car exibit we overheard someone announcing a show that would be starting soon. The announcer was also the star of the show. We sat ourselves down and enjoyed a hilarious demonstration of nothing...http://www.freshvariety.net/jb/index.html...I guess thats not fair but really the guy was just funny (please see picture below)

After watching the show we were pretty much done with this place, it was really hot and once my mom pointed out my sunburn I started feeling it. We called my dad to come pick us up (you didn't expect us to walk back, did you?).

More Good Stuff (5 mile day)

Ahhh! I feel so refreshed just got done with a bath after our 5 mile walk. I decided while I was in the tub that I needed to wash my hair to get that really clean feeling but the water was all soapy so I emptied out the pre-moistened pad tub and used that, excellent idea! So now my hair is not only clean with no shampoo residue but if there happens to be any inflamed blood vessels on my head those are also taken care of!

So here I am writing my third entry with a towel on my head. My mom and I decided that this blog is really going to keep us going because as we imagine it people will really be wondering how are training is going so we have to keep it up for the fans, hence we have to keep walking.

I cannot forget to add a little note pad and pen to our satchel because while we are walking we think of things to do, look up, schedule...and I find it helpful to just write it all down so you don't forget it later.


Also added to the satchel; sinus headache medicine, allergy medicine, head-on (apply directly to the head), tube of preparation-h, SPF 30, shout portable wipe and oral gel for dry mouth (you never know). All this has to still leave room for my mom's wallet, keys, both of our phones and my bottle of water.


Sunday we walked to Rita's (http://www.ritasice.com/) in the inner harbor to get a gelati. Today we weren't going as far so we stopped in fells point at the lemonade stand. We discovered that there is a movie showing every Wednesday night at 8:45 right off the broadway pier. We also discovered that pier six has concerts (which we already knew) but people sit outside along the other side of the bridge and get a free concert! Oh yeah! We are totally in!


We see lots of interesting people on these walks. While we were eating our gelati's this man came up to my mom and asked if she spoke English, as ussual my mom didn't hear what he said. He ended up being one of those guys who has the longest made up story that needs to get his car out of the garage and lost his wallet and he is so embarrased to ask but could he have twenty bucks?

Today while we were drinking our lemonade we got a free show from a man playing his bongo drum and this girl dancing to his beats. We also saw a man walk passed us with a Chile t-shirt on while we were talking about my old classmates from when we used to lived there. Weird.

My mom reminded me that once I get a job and move out she will have to keep the blog up...makes me sad to think about that. It's true I am looking for a job as a social worker. It's been tough looking for a job outside of Maryland (I am ready to move on), but that is a different blog all together.

Today we walked 5 miles! Hurray!

6 mile day

Today we walked to the inner harbor and we came up with the idea for this blog! The only person I am sure will read this is my Aunt Lu, so for that reason I am dedicating this blog to her, our devout reader!

So far we have collected one cent on our walk which will all go towards my mother's fund raising for breast cancer.

We also decided that we would keep a satchel full of all the things we might need on our long walks so inside the satchel are four band aids (special peanuts edition) and a chap stick.

Hopefully, my entries will get more exciting as we go along...tomorrow is our day off from training so don't be expecting a new entry until Tuesday.

So.

Not sure where to begin.

My mom (who is also my hero) is training for a three day walk for breast cancer in San Diego this fall. She will walk 20 miles each day. Since I am currently unemployed I am going to walk alongside her as she trains for this endeavor.This blog is a documentation of the adventure we have as we walk our asses of for breast cancer!