ToddlingAroundTheWorld

9th annual Thorne Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

Through the woods of Point Defiance. Had a good hour after finish the shark food prep and went on the trail down to Owen beach and then came back up along the waterfront. No seals or raccoons or herons today. Finished a good six miles in Tacoma and then headedback home. Watched some football and got in a shortnap. Then back out into the trails of Jovita for my 4.5 mile loop up to Trout Lake and back home.  Was able to get 11.5 miles for the day.  Here is a shot of some Christmas lights out on one of the Trout lake houses. 

Caught this great view today while on my lunch walk up and around Newport Hills.  Also found this pic from Austin’s Mission Moms Instagram. Look at this crazy guy posing for the camera. 

Had the great experience of talking to Austin on Google Hangouts today. Just seeing his face come up on that video brings a huge smile to my face each Monday! It brings us so much closer and helps us to connect with him in such a more intimate way than just emails. I love it. He is doing so well. He is exercising and learning the language by leaps and bounds. He is having a great time playing futbol with the local kids and even bought a pair of cleats! He had been just using his church shoes and a pair of Nikes, but they were getting trashed. It is a wonderful thing to hear how much he is enjoying the people and the culture while making that effort of service where he can help change lives and hopefully the world- a little bit at a time. I hit a big milestone today on the #walktobahiablanca. I crossed over the border into Mexico! Didnt even have any trouble with customs! ;) This distance is 1,556 miles from Seattle. I am about 22% of the way there, with ONLY 5,464 miles to go. Looking...

I woke up around one a.m. on this Sunday morning. I felt a bit sick to my stomach. Went to the bathroom and then tried to go back to sleep. Was totally uncomfortable for about another half hour and felt like I needed to go back to the bathroom. Once I got in there, I still was unable to go, but felt sick like I needed to throw up. Wasnt able to throw up or go to the bathroom. My stomach area started cramping and hurting so horribly, I ended up getting on the ground and rolling over in Fetal position. It was some of the worst pain I have ever been in, and I have been in a lot of pain - Dislocated shoulders, Ruptured ACLs, dislocated knee, the rectopexy... All of those have been horrible and extremely painful in their own ways. This was at the top of the list. I couldnt get it to stop and was moaning in pain. I thought it might subside, and didnt want to wake LeAnn or Jaylin, so I crawled into the walk-in closet and was rolling on the ground for a a couple of hours while trying not to ma...

Friday night, Date Night! LeAnn and I went to go see the movie about Mr. Rogers which was played by Tom Hanks. It wasnt quite what we expected, which was more of a biography around Fred Rogers life. It was interesting to see that the audience consisted mostly of 'older' folks like ourselves, who grew up watching Mr. Rogers. The story revolved around a journalist who was a bit jaded and was assigned to write a story in Esquire magazine about Mr. Rogers. He was quite a curmudgeon and went into the assignment with a bit of dread, but after interacting with Mr. Rogers saw that his heart softened and he came to more appreciate the kindness and how genuine Mr. Rogers was. Finished up some walking that night with some Mall miles. ;

Had to take the Volvo back to the shop this morning

Just realized that TMobile has my initials starting it. So, I must have some strong connection with this company.  Walked the mall for an hour, drive to my parking spot,and walked over to the T-Mobile 

Didnt end up walking home from church today, so planned to walk home from the Fireside that was later that afternoon. We went to see a broadcast of Elder Gong and the General Presidency talk about the Youth and Children programs that will be implemented in 2020. This will be run in lieu of Scouting and other programs that we have had to this point. There will be some different award given out for achieving certain goals at ages 8, 12 and 18. It looks great. The walk home was nice. It was starting to get dark about 20 minutes into the 4 mile walk, but there are sidewalks along the route most of the way, and it wasnt raining, so that was a bonus!

Zoo walk in the morning. There are a couple of new walruses who are pretty cool. I was planning on heading home right after shark food prep to hopefully take the Volvo in to the mechanic to get fixed, so didn’t have that hour between prep and feeding the sharks where I would usually be out walking. Here is a shot in theAquarium, this is an old section that they have closeddown, but on the way to the freezer where they store the shark food.  I wasn’t able to get in until Monday, so just headed home. Watched some football, worked on the puzzle and then went out to rake leaves. Turns out that even taking leaves in the yard for an hour can add a miles of walking onto the daily total. Also needed to work on trying to catch the stinker of a mole that is tearing up the front yard.  Then walked a couple of miles around the neighborhood before heading over to Tim’s house to watch the new Star Wars Mandelorian episodes. Grabbed a Popeyes Chicken sandwich, which was good enough, but not ...

Walked through the mall, Newport area of Bellevue before and after work. It wasn’t raining for the rest of theday after it came down hard in the morning.  I needed to stop by the church after work to take careof some responsibilities. While there, I called LeAnn about grabbing a Togo order at Olive Garden for our Friday night date night. We ended up sending an order in and needed some time for it to get ready before I could go to pick it up. So I had about 30 minutes to walk and went down to Lake Killarney and the nearby trails behind World Vision.  Then drove the couple of miles over to Olive Garden and took it home for a nice date night with LeAnn. I called it the ‘Triple P date’ = Pasta, Puzzles and Programs. We had our nice dinner, worked on a Thomas Kincaid puzzle while watching a TV show. Great Night!

Was able to drive in to Bellevue at 5:00 am to beat the 405 nasties. Got to the mall at 5:45 for a warmer route. I have walked hundreds of miles at Factoria Mall during the WalkToPrague, so it was like coming homeagain. Only a couple of other walkers there at 6:00 am.  Got four miles in there and then the mile from my parking spot to the office.  Another 2.5 at lunch and I stopped at the Big5 to pickup a weighted blanket for Jaylin for Christmas. Didn’t think 15 pounds was that much, but it was a good haul back to the office.  Then three night laps around the neighborhood for 12.8 for the day. 

Went to a software tester by group meetup in Seattle after work. It was crazy that it took over an hour to get from Bellevue to the U disctrict. I took my good 2 gopass thinking going over 520 would be a breeze. It wasn’t. That toll bridge was just as nasty as 405 south. Finally made it and then had 45 minutes before my meeting to walk around a bit. Went down through University Village for a while after seeing that the Burke Gilman Trail would be crazy to walk in the dark with a bunch of bikers still whizzing by like maniacs. Here are a couple of shots of U district fun

Finished the shark food prep petty quickly today so had about an hour and a half to go on a walk before I needed to be back for the shark feed at 11:00. Saw some nice wildlife on the route. First was this raccoon. He was just cruising around and didn’t care that therewere humans nearby.  Then saw this heron out in the sound next to the trail. He eyed me warily, but didn’t take off.  I love Point Defiance park for all of the variety of trails and sites. The Japanese garden with this Torii is one of my favorites as it brings back such fond memories of the time I spent in Japan. 

Today was Veterans Day. Worked form Home, so tookmy Trout Lake loop this morning. Talked to Austin on the Hangouts. He is an amazing guy. Having great experiences in Argentina.  Took my iPhone down to the Apple Store in Tacoma this afternoon after dropping Jaylin off at work.  Walked a few miles in and around the Tacoma mall while waiting for the phone to be fixed.  Then dropped the car back at Papa Murphys for Jaylin to drive home with. It is about a mile home from there and I saw this cool moonrise. 

Today was stake conference. LeAnn and Jaylin went earlier to the Sunrise devotional. So I just walked up for the 10 o’clock session. It was Misty. I was worried my pants would be soaked through by the time I made the 4 miles to the church. After about 15 minutes, it stopped and I dried out. I walked past the Pierces home and they Offered me a ride as they were just getting into their car. I tiled them I have to keep on walking to get my miles in! Saw this crow staring down at me as I neared the church. 

Finished about 6 miles up in Bellevue doing the usual loop up around Tyee MIddle School, around the TMO campus, and back and forth to the car.  Had a nice dinner of potato soup with LeAnn (Jaylin has been working a lot at Papa Murphys) and then hit the neighborhood for 4 miles.  10.2 for the day, 1441 total for #walktobahiablanca

Austin has been using his scripture marking pencil like a boss and said he needs some refills sent to him. So, during lunch made the pioneer trek up from TMO to DB

Nasty traffic

Finding that I walk a bit more here than when I was working for home the past year and a half. Getting to and from campus is a good hike and then I take my lunch walk through the Sunset Ravine 

Started a new job at T-Mobile this week as a QA manager. I had been here previously about a year and a half ago, so it was nice to come back. I spent a lot of time before work walking the neighborhoods and trails nearby. I also was walking in the Factoria mall early inthe mornings when it was cold outside. I told Autumn today that this was the same place where I walked hundreds of miles on the #seattletoprague walk for her. The parking situation is rough, so I usually find a spot about 3/4 of a mile away. That gives me a good 10-12minute walk each way just to get to and from the car. It’s like coming back to my old stomping grounds!

I have been using this app called Sweatcoin. It calculates your miles walked outside and then gives you ‘sweat coins’ based on your total miles each day. Seems when I walk 10 miles or so that you can earn about 15 sweat coins. You can then use the coins to purchase items that they offer from their partners, such as wallets, water bottles, clothing, etc.  they even have an iPhone you can get for 20,000 sweat coins. I haven’t purchased anything yet, but have earned this much since starting using the app in May.  Money for nothing!

Slow and relaxing Sunday. Watched the Seahawks bring home a great win in overtime against theBuccaneers. With daylong savings, it’s getting dark early, so ended up heading out in the black to get some miles in. Sundays are pretty much my Rest day, but is still work to get at least 5 miles in. Tonight I hit 4.2. Progress is progress. 

Another beautiful sunrise while walking the zoo before feeding the sharks.   Took a walk down to Owen beach after finishing the shark food preparation, then back to the aquarium to feed the nurse sharks. It was fun today as one of the aquarists had me help 'tease' the nurses once they were done feeding. The Sandbar sharks were still being fed, and they dont want the nurses moving in on their food, so they put a herring in the feeding sticks and then try and keep the nurse sharks occupied by 'teasing' them with the fish. We didnt let them get the herring, but just drag it in front of them just out of reach.  I then went to Federal Way to meet LeAnn and Jaylin after Jaylin had taken the SAT. We were planning on going to lunch at Red Robin to celebrate her finishing her test and my starting a new job at T-Mobile on Monday. She hadnt quite finished, so LeAnn and I went down to Celebration Park to walk for a bit. 11.3 miles for the day. 1,351 walked for #seattletobahiablan...

In an effort to explore more outside of my usual routes, I will often head down dead-end streets. This one was overlooking the. Alley and had a majestic view ofMt. Rainier.  It’s so worth it to take the ‘road less traveled’

Since beginning my virtual walking journey when Autumn left on her mission to the Czech Republic on July, 6, 2016, I have now walked over 10,000 miles! 10,015 to be exact. Here is the rollup of the statistics to this point: 1,213 days 10,015 miles (16,117 kilometers) 8.26 miles per day 18,027,000 steps (give or take a few thousand...) Going from West to East, this is the distance from Seattle, Washington, to Alexa, Inner Mongolia, China. I now have 6,703 miles to finish walking all of the way around the world. Since starting the Seattle to Bahia Blanca virtual walk when Austin left for his mission on June 18, 2019, I have walked 1,330 miles, which is the distance from Seattle to almost Phoenix, Arizona. I now have 5,689 miles to finish walking to Bahia Blanca by the time Austin finishes his mission in June of 2021 (595 days left, which is equal to 9.56 miles per day) Special thanks to my loving wife, LeAnn, for supporting my goals and putting up with me walking for hours each ...