ToddlingAroundTheWorld

I just saw a couple of these old gentleman walking by on the trail right as I was about to do some of my push-ups. (That’s them in the picture walking further down the trail) One of the guys saw me and said ‘give me 100!’ I responded that actually this is where I am doing my 100th. I already did 75 on the three stations prior to this! He was like 'whoa!' and they shuffled back on down the trail. I think I shocked him a little bit - where he was trying to be funny I actually ended up fulfilling his request!

This park is in Milton, about a mile and a half from home.  While walking, I finished listening to Rambo: First Blood, which was our Scurvy Dogs book club book of the month. When the movie came out in 1982, I was twelve years old, and it was rated R. So didn’t have much interest in it. Knew that it was gory, and thought it dealt with the story of a Green Beret in Vietnam. Didn’t realize it was about a veteran returned from Vietnam, who was passing through Kentucky. Found it quite fascinating and it was a good listen. 

It’s 80 degrees out, just finished a couple of miles, gethome and check my mileage...

Pre-church jaunt to the lake and back

After I finished my shift at the aquarium and helping to feed the sharks today, I decided to walk a little bit through the zoo (even though this is a risk and I am wearing my volunteer uniform and I will get asked questions by the guests). As I was walking around there was a big crowd gathered around the sand sculpture, which as you can see it’s quite impressive. What a beautiful work of art!

Last October I decided to add a little more weight resistance training to my walking schedule. The trail nearby our house has multiple exercise stations, so I decided rather than walk by them multiple times each day, that I would start doing push-ups when I hit one of these stations. I started with just a few because at that time that’s all I could do, but after a couple months I worked my way up to 10 per station and now up to 25 per station. So I hit four of the stations each way and end up doing 200 push-ups each time I walk this trail. So over the last nine months that has added up to 23,874 push-ups. I’m sure this is many times over the total number of push-ups I have ever done throughout my whole lifetime up to this point. It has definitely helped my upper body to feel stronger so I continue to do it whenever I walk the Jovita trail. 

Funny Farm on the corner of Jovita Blvd. Bunch of goats, pigs and chickens running around. It has been nice walking around more of these rural streets down inEdgewood. Never saw anything like this back walkingaround in Kent the past couple of years. 

It has now been 38 days since Austin has left on his mission. He has really been enjoying his experience in Mexico MTC and is picking up the Spanish language very well. He is so excited to be leaving for Argentina on Monday morning. He will fly into Panama City, have a four hour layover, and then continue on to Buenos Aires, Argentina. From there he will take a bus to Bahia Blanca, which takes around 8 hours, arriving Tuesday morning. I am thrilled for the things he has learned so far and ecstatic for what is to come for him in Argentina. It has made me reflect of the time when I was a new missionary in Japan and all of those similar feelings I was having as I journeyed to a new country while realizing I would be living there for the next two years and hoping to be able to share and impact the lives of the people I would meet during that time. This period of time, as I have been working on walking my way down to Argentina on the #walktobahia has now brought me 380.2 miles from ...

One of the joys of walking my way around the world is all of the wonderful canine friends that I encounter. You never know who’s going to start barking and go ballistic when you walk around the corner. Many of these dogs I am familiar with now and know when they’re coming as I walk on certain routes, that’s not to mention all of the Kujos that freak out behind the windows of certain houses when I walk by. Some streets I even avoid on purpose because I know there are some snarly beasts waiting just around the corner. Today I decided I would start getting pictures and videos of the little terrorists when I passed by. I ran into about 8 to 10 of the friendly fellows on my 7 mile walk this morning. I will call these doggies #DogsThatWantToEatMe

This is the park in our neighborhood. It’s been nice to have a dedicated hoop here. Austin would come play here off and on when he was back from college.  I often do loops around the neighborhood late at night, sopass by the park often when I need to get another three miles or so in. 

I often listen to Audio books while I walk. It’s a great way to learn and exercise at the same time. Multitasking FTW! Current book is a great one

Looks like this one is ripe and ready to harvest

This peaceful looking home with a pond in front it is right off of Jovita Boulevard. I’m sure it was a lot less chaotic here when they first built it. Now that road is one of the main arterial roads in Edgewood. It doesn’t take away from its beauty, But you can see how life Often gets more chaotic than we expect as it barrels along 

This is Flash. He will be turning 15 years old next month. He usually likes to just stay inside even when we let him out to go to the bathroom, he tries to get back in as soon as possible. When the kids were younger they would occasionally take him out on walks in our old neighborhood, but not too often. Since we have moved to our new Home, the new neighborhood it’s much more conducive for walking. Almost every morning I will take Flash on a walk around our neighborhood before continuing on my longer walking routes. This has worked out well because now he goes to the bathroom in other places besides the backyard. I do clean this up of course but it has become a nice routine for both of us. So since we have moved in and I take him out 3 to 4 times a week, Flash has likely Walked over 200 miles with me. That is because a loop around our neighborhood is close to 1 mile long. It’s fun to see how excited he gets each morning when I grab my headphones I go open the drawer with his leash in i...

After 34 days since Austin has left on his mission, I am right on track with the mileage of walking from Seattle to Bahia Blanca Argentina. I just hit 339 miles since he left, so averaging just above the 9.6 per day that I need to hit. 

Love this house I often walk by in a four mile loop I dofrom our house. It has a beautiful wrap around deck.  I had to force myself to get up off the couch and finish getting my walking in today. I had her about 5 miles complete but needed to get to 10 to reach my daily goal. I did get a few miles in before going to the aquarium today, but I have found that when I am on my feet for three hours straight that often wears me down more than walking for three hours. For my responsibilities at the aquarium as a volunteer I am washing windows and preparing the food for the sharks bringing up items from the freezer. I don’t think I realize that when I’m standing up consistently back it’s very challenging have my knees start hurting. So after returning from the zoo I was actually pretty wiped out. I ended up taking a nap but then realized I needed to get back out and continue my journey. That is a great thing about having a goal that is visible the mini outside of yourself. I feel bigger ur...

My Apple Watch has now logged over 8,960 miles since Autumn left on her mission in 2016. I logged my biggest day yet on the Walk to Bahia Blanca yesterday. 18.2 miles. If you can dream it, you can do it. 

Twenty-six days down and since Austin started his mission, have completed 254 miles and walked the distance from Seattle to Condon, Oregon. Only 6,766.2 miles to go!  Yesterday, I was planning on walking home from church. The weather was perfect and I was looking forward to it. I had packed up some shoes and clothes to change into after church. Unfortunately, the mind was willing, but the body was weak. Some of my internal IBS symptoms came back to haunt me and I was feeling very nauseous. I had to have LeAnn drive me home. I took a nap and some medicine and felt better after waking up. I then did an afternoon walk on the Jovita trail, where I was able to help a couple of nice ladies take a photo after seeing them attempt a selfie. They were grateful. Always good to ask if you can lend a hand. Later that evening, I left around 8:30 and had a nice 'dusk walk'. Went up by Trout Lake and through some of the remote neighborhoods over in Jovita. They are nice as there is little...

I got a bunch of these bracelets with the Argentina flag that have paracord to wrap around your wrist. I sentone with Austin and I wear one each time I go out on my walk to Argentina. This helps me remember my purpose of this walk and reminds me of what Austin is doing out there serving the people of Argentina. I will take photos with the bracelet that I then send to Austin to let him know I am on my way down to see him in Argentina in June of 2021!

I spend a good 45 minutes almost every day on this trail. It is perfectly located just a couple of blocks away from our home. I have seen coyotes, rabbits and hundreds of dogs that are walking their owners here. There are 4 exercise stations where I have been doing 25 pushups per station on my out and back route, so 100 pushups each way, 200 round trip. This has turned into over 21,000 pushups since last October. I love this trail and the privacy and beauty of it. Its a step away from the busy streets and takes you right into nature. Over the past year since moving here, I have probably walked it 200 times and will never grow tired of it.

I use the Apple Health app to track my miles. I then enter them into google sheets to calculate total distance. Here is the past 12 days. Picking up more miles after getting back from the Mexico trip.

Funny Farm on one of the trails I walk in the Edgewood area #walktoBahia #toddlingAroundTheWorld

LeAnn and I were down in Los Cabos, Mexico celebrating our 25th anniversary. While traveling, it is often more challenging to hit the daily mileage goal as there are flights and other travel time that dont allow for walking as much. It was fantastic to spend the week with LeAnn in the Cabos. I had no idea that the Baja Peninsula was that bleak and desert-y. I figured it would be more tropical as we were closer to the equator. The beaches were beautiful, as was Flora Farms, in San Jose Del Cabo area. We spent the day there on Wednesday and enjoyed a delicious lunch in that beautiful oasis in the desert. It was nice walking on the beaches, which I did daily. I initially tried to walk in my walking shoes, but the sand of course started finding its way in and made that uncomfortable soon after starting. Ended up taking off the shoes and socks and going barefoot. I think the beach walking took about twice as long as my normal pace, so though I didnt get as many miles in, it was soothin...