2/6/2010 Home Again

Wow! What a beautiful day! February 6th, sunny and 58 degrees. What a switch from the East Coast.  So glad I made it out in the nick of time. I hear they do, indeed, have 30 inches of snow in some places.  My original plan a couple of months ago was to stay longer back East and drive to Philadelphia today and then fly home. Glad that plan was changed. I would have been stuck.

I am always pretty tired the day after I get home from a trip, but the weather was very motivating to get out for a walk. I headed to the Port of Skagit Trails, my trusty standby, and did the outside loop, with a little extra, 2.3 miles. The trail was quite busy today, people with their families, including small children, joggers, walkers, and bicyclists. At one point I passed a family when their little girl of about  5 or so passed me up. I had a hard time catching up to her. Darn my short legs!  I think it is awesome to see families out walking these trails with their children, though; what a great habit for thyem to start.
No coat or gloves required today, which was quite nice. I headed down by the eagle's nest toward the end of my walk, but they weren't home.  A while back I thought they might have eggs in their nest; they were staying so close, but I don't think so now.  I did see other birds today, though, including a hawk who refused to stick around and have his picture taken, and a heron who flew overhead. I can't believe the trees and shrubs that are blooming, too. Today it seemed Spring was busting out all over!  You can see my route here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/615494

2/5/2010 Walk, Don't Run

Today's walk only amounted to 1.5 miles. Probably the shortest amount of walking I have done since I started this last month. All of my walking today was done in airports: Dulles, Atlanta, SeaTac. Washington, DC was getting hit with a major snowstorm today, and I got out just in time. I made sure I was at the airport early; I thought it might be crazy. It DID take me over 30 minutes to get through security, and then when I got to my gate which was the last one in the terminal, I found my flight was delayed, so instead of just sitting as I would have done in the past, I walked around, dragging my suitcase and carry on. My flight ended up being the last flight out of Dulles today for Delta Airlines. They were offering people $400 to give up their seats, but the next flight they could be booked on was Sunday at 1:30 PM. Once I got on the plane, I realized why they were overbooked: at least 8 seats that I know of were filled with flight crews of cancelled flights who had to get to another destination for another flight.  I hadn't ever thought about how cancelled flights also impact the movement of flight crews.

Nearly every row of listed flights looked like this when I arrived at the airport this morning.  We ended up taking off an hour late. Now I only originally had 80 minutes between connecting flights in Atlanta, and since we were so late, when we got to Atlanta, I pretty much had to walk the length of the terminal at full speed ahead. No time to dilly dally, make a bathroom stop, or eat.  Luckily my incoming and outgoing flights were in the same terminal, but they couldn't have been farther apart.  When I got to my new gate, the plane was already loaded, but I made it!  As luck would have it, or the travel gods had pity on me, I ended up seated in First Class...I had a bathroom, lunch, it was sweet! And we landed in Seattle 45 minutes early, which gave me plenty of time to walk the length of the airport in search of Starbucks and then down to wait for my bus home.  Too late and too dark to do any additional walking tonight. I'll have to settle for the 1.5 miles of airports today.

2/4/2010 Washington, DC

Wow! What a difference 7 months makes!  I was in Washington, DC, last 4th of July.  We were here for a conference, and I stayed a couple of extra days to experience the 4th.  I remember dreading any walking we had to do; people dropped me off within a block of where ever I needed to go; we took cabs instead of walking.  I remember that everything I planned centered around how far I would have to walk because my knee was so bad. I had my knee replacement surgery 2 days after I returned home. This trip--totally the opposite! Today I walked over 3 miles around the city.  We arrived at our meeting a few minutes early, and I opted to walk down the street a couple of blocks to take some pictures. We walked to a restaurant for lunch; we walked from the subway to the hotel. I even ran down some stairs to catch a subway train. Unbelieveable difference--and no pain in my knee.  So nice. The knee replacement has literally changed my life--in just 7 months. 

It was a beautiful day here today. Chilly, but sunny, and the buildings were in their full glory. This shot is the torch of knowledge above the Library of Congress.  We were at a meeting across the street. They are expecting a huge snow storm here tomorrow, but I think we will escape town before it hits.
Tonight I met up with one of my former History Day students (and middle school student), Brette Christoffer, who is living in the area. We had dinner together. It is so awesome to be able to visit with former students as they grow into wonderful adults.  What a treat! 
I expect to return here a couple of more times this year and hope I actually have some time to do some planned walks around the mall area, but tomorrow I am heading back home and looking forward to my walks in our beautiful Skagit Valley.  It's nice to see other places, but always great to return home.

2/3/2010 A Strange Walk

My walk today actually consisted of several walks, through airports, subways, and city streets.  I totaled over 8000 steps and 2.5 miles of walking, but it was definitely in spurts. First out to the S gate at SeaTac Airport. In Minneapolis, I had to transverse nearly the entire airport, arriving at B gate and leaving from D gate.  Then at Dulles Airport, I made it to a bus, and then the Metro.  When I got off the Metro I walked the wrong direction, adding 5 blocks to my walk, but that was good for me.  Then after checking into the hotel, out again for a 3 block walk for some much needed food.  Can't say I did a lot of aerobic walking, (only 13 minutes counted for that) but I was dragging a suitcase and carry-on with me--those two items had to add 25 pounds to my walk...just like when I was heavier. Imagine carrying an extra 25 or 30 pounds everywhere like that.  At least these extra pounds were on wheels and not on my body!

As you can see from this picture I took out the window of the plane, the country is still frozen everywhere but Washington State.  This is a golf course outside of Minneapolis.  I like to look out the window at the landscape as we fly over it.  Lots of snow on the ground in DC, but again, sidewalks and major roads are clear. They are expecting a big storm this weekend, but I think we will be out of town by the time it hits--or at least I hope we are...Not sure what tomorrow  brings.  In meetings from 9:30 to 5:30, then meeting a friend  for dinner at 6:30. Might be treadmill time.

2/2/2010 A Walk Around a Block

I found this quote the other day, and it seemed appropriate for today's walk: "Some people see more in a walk around the block than others see in a trip around the world. -Source Unknown"  I am feeling quite rushed today; lots of things on my to do list, so I decided to just do a short walk--30 minutes.  I met my friend Christie for lunch, and then we did a little 30 minute, 1.4 mile walk around the block--a big block!  We walked an access road behind a grocery store, over to the mall parking lot, up to the main street and back to the car.  When Christie was teaching, she taught a walking class for PE, and this is part of one of the routes she would have her classes walk.

I wonder if people actually ever sit on these benches (besides me to get my picture taken)? It was a very nice day--no hat or gloves needed today. It kept getting nicer and nicer as the day went on.  Our winter is pretty messed up here. Today we saw 4 rhododendrons in nearly full bloom.  Maybe where Punxsutawney Phil is they plan to have 6 more weeks of winter, but it's hard to imagine that happening here. We just had our most mild January in history. Guess I picked a good year to start walking.

I am enjoying my walks every day, and the walking doesn't bother my knee at all. If anything gets in the way of my walks, it will be my crazy schedule, at least through this winter's short days anyway. Once summer rolls around, I can walk in the evening if I choose.  I guess it's not any different than any other exercise. It's important to find time each day to set aside for your health. Tomorrow will be interesting--flying cross country again. My route today is here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/612888

2/1/2010 Cascade Trail

Today my friend Christie and I walked a 1.4 mile section of the Cascade Trail outside of Sedro Woolley.  This is one of over a 1000 Rails-to-Trails areas in the United States, thanks to an amendment in 1983 that allowed abandoned railways to be used as trails until a future use came up.  The Cascade Trail runs over 22 miles from Sedro Woolley to Concrete, so at my rate, it would take me 14 different walks to cover the distance. 

The trail is mainly crushed gravel, and the part we walked on today was pretty level.  Not much to take pictures of today; it was a bit gray, ready to rain, and I think all the wildlife was keeping warm somewhere, but that enabled us to keep up a pretty good pace and we ended up walking nearly 3 miles out and back.  Next time we will start up the trail a bit farther.  We crossed a couple of creeks, and in the foreground you could see the North Cascade mountain range peeking up. I imagine this will be a very scenic area to walk later this spring.

There was a lot of controversy when this trail was first created--people living near the trail didn't want it created. I hope now they see that most walkers and joggers and hikers are a polite bunch who are just out to enjoy nature, not destroy it.  You can see my route here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/612380

1/31/2010 A Month of Walking

Today was the end of the first month of my walking, 31 straight days. Only 11 months to go now.  My friend Christie and I drove to Wenatchee Confluence State Park on our way out of town today for my walk.  After we crossed a pedestrian bridge, we opted to walk through the Horan Natural Area which takes you through a variety of animal habitats. We walked over 2 miles, but stopped frequently to take pictures. It was a gorgeous, crisp day, and the late afternoon sun cast a warm glow on the trees and shrubs. 

I was excited to see a variety of birds, ducks, and geese. I saw a Flicker who blended in with the bare trees, several Red-Winged Blackbirds sitting on cattails, an abundance of Canadian Geese and even some Cedar Waxwings. I hadn't seen that bird before; it has a distinctive yellow band at the end of its tail. Just as we were ready to take a picture, they flew off.  This walk took us along several man-made channels that actually fill with irrigation overflow in the growing season. Right now, many of them are frozen over. I remember kayaking through these channels a few years ago in the summer.  Signs of beavers were everywhere.

It appears they are actually a problem in the area, based on the many trees we saw with fencing around them to keep the beavers away.  They had been quite busy on the one in the picture above, even recently. The Horan area was created by the Chelan PUD, and they have built many boxes in the area for the Wood Ducks to nest in. I really look forward to walking through here again in the spring, summer and fall.  You can see my route here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/611741