4/26/2010 A Dog Walk

 I was in a meeting all day today reading school district technology plans for the state, so no opportunity to go for a walk until after 7:00 tonight. By then it was a little damp out, but not cold like it would be on the west side of the state, so I put on my trusty REI wind/rain coat and headed out with Buck, a golden lab that lives with my Goddaughter and her husband. Buck loves to go for walks.  When we started out tonight, I wasn't sure who was taking whom for a walk...Buck walks a lot faster than me, but by the time we headed back home, he was a lot slower. I let him off his leash down on the loop trail for a bit, so he could run free--he loves that, and as long as he comes back to me when I call, I'll be happy to take him for walks. I also feel a lot safer walking alone if I have Buck with me. Problem is, I have to drive clear to Wenatchee in order to take him for a walk.  I only walked for 30 minutes tonight, but it was a good walk. 1.28 miles. Here's my route: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/695942

4/25/2010 Back to East Wenatchee

Well, I was home for nearly 36 hours before I took off again. I headed to East Wenatchee this afternoon; helping out with the statewide reading of technology plans tomorrow and Tuesday. A good way of giving back to the state, plus I get to see all my old co-workers and friends. After playing with Alice for a couple of hours before she went to bed, I headed out for a walk. Where I am staying is just 10 minutes from the Loop Trail that runs along the Columbia River, so it's a great place to walk. It was very peaceful down by the river; in fact it was so quiet, you could hear people shouting on the far side of the river. As I was heading to the trail, I passed a Flicker sitting up on a power pole. Quail are also everywhere around here, so I saw a lot of them, but not down on the trail. It was a beautiful night as the sun was setting. Didn't even need a jacket tonight. I managed 1.9 miles out and back from the house. A good 45 minute walk. Good to back in the routine again. Here's my route: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/694778

4/24/2010 Back in the Skagit valley

I was pretty exhausted today. Gone since last Monday, training in Denver and Chicago, three flights, and sightseeing. I was a couch potato all day, but finally drug myself up about 7:00 PM (thank goodness it is light until after 8:00) and did a local walk. I was going to just do the small loop near my house, but then decided to go out onto Avon Allen Road and walk to Highway 20 and back. All in all it was 1.75 miles and I walked for 42 minutes, so it ended up being a good walk with a bit of some hill in it. Here's my route:  http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/693457

It rained for part of the day today, but by the time I went for my walk, the sky had cleared and it was pretty nice out. The clouds were pretty amazing.

One of the things that I noticed in Chicago is that my leg is much stronger now. I was able to walk up and down stairs without holding onto the railing for support. This is a huge improvement for me, both in flexibility and in strength. Once I realized what I was doing, I was pretty impressed with myself and realized how far I have come in the last 9 months.

4/23/2010 Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Whew! What a day. Over 5 hours of driving, 4 hours on a plane, 3 states, wake up in Illinois, bed at home in Washington. The wonders of modern day travel. First this morning I got a call that my camera had been found. I had to describe all the pictures that were on it to Carmen first and sure enough, it was mine, so we headed into the outskirts of Chicago to the City Cab Company to retrieve it.  I left a nice tip for the cab driver who was honest enough to return it. I think it's pretty amazing that I got it back.
After that we headed to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to tour the countryside instead of heading back into the city itself. We definitely made the right choice. Lake Geneva is a quaint town on the banks of the lake, where a lot of rich people built mansions after the Civil War. Some of the homes are truly amazing. We ate lunch at a great little place called Scuttlebutts, and then took a walk along the lake to view some of the homes. The trail, which is made of bricks and stones, goes along the lake and actually across the front yards of these homes. The homes are magnificent. Some of the biggest places I have ever seen; they remind me of a slightly smaller scale of the places in Newport, Rhode Island, and indeed it is known as the Newport of the West. http://www.lakegenevawi.com/Discovery/History.aspx  I have no idea who owns these homes now, but they are amazing.

These are just two of the homes we saw along the path. There were many more.  They all sit on the hillside looking towards the lake. This would be a great place to visit for a longer period of time then we spent here today.  My walking route is here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/691738  We walked for just 30 minutes, 1.26 miles out and back, but what a walk it was!!

4/22/2010 The Weber Grill Restaurant

Today was our last training in this set of 7 cities. Again, I left my pedometer back at the hotel, so I have no idea how far I walked, but I'm guessing 3-5 miles.  We were in bad traffic on the way to class, and expected as much heading back to our hotel, but ended up with a fairly pleasant drive. We are staying just 17 miles from the training site, which where I live would be like staying in Burlington and training in Anacortes or Bellingham, but with so many commuters on the road and freeway construction going on, it was more like driving to Seattle. We stayed at a Hyatt Summerfield Suites which was very nice. In the evening they have free beer and wine along with enough snacks that you can call it a dinner. In the morning they have a very good hot breakfast.  Near the hotel was a Weber Grill Restaurant.

Having never seen one of these before, that's where we opted for dinner tonight. It was amazing. The kitchen is several huge Weber grills where the cooks grill everything, from the warm bread to the chicken and the steaks. We ordered take-out, which was great because we got to stay right by the kitchen while waiting for our dinner.  We could watch the cooks in action. Dinner was great. I'd recommend this place to anyone visiting Chicago. http://www.webergrillrestaurant.com/locations/locationsintro.html There are three of them in the Chicago area and one in Indianapolis. I hope they expand to Washington someday.

4/21/2010 Chicago and a lost camera

Discovered this cool feature of Picasa today. It takes a group of pictures and creates a collage automatically, but allows you to edit it as well. Most of these were pictures I took today on a walking tour through what is known as the Gold Coast of Chicago. However, they also include our little Cube rental car and one of our cab drivers, too. The Bishop Plumbing truck was seen at the Archdiocese of Chicago's home. Thought that a bit funny...
I lost my camera today when it fell out of my jacket pocket in a cab. I realized it immediately, but by then the cab was gone. So how did I get these pictures? Two days several phone calls later, I got my camera back. Pure luck since we had no idea even what color of cab we were in. Kathy thought she remembered the cab number, so that's what we started with. Amazing piece of luck!
We took the train from where we were staying into the city, walked around for quite a bit--very windy. Guess that's why it's called the Windy City. I had to buy a jacket since I had left my coat in the car. It was very pleasant weather when we started; who knew it would be so cold in the city. We did a walking tour of the Gold Coast area (http://www.chicagotraveler.com/neighborhoods/gold-coast-feature.htm); lots of magnificent mansions bulit in the late 1800s and on, including even a Playboy Mansion and a place called the Three Arts Club where women lived and trained in the arts. One of the homes we saw was designed by Frank Llyod Wright when he was just starting out with a firm in Chicago. I'd recommend the area to anyone visiting Chicago. Not sure how far we walked today; I left my pedometer back at the hotel again, but we did do quite a bit of walking and I tracked our route a couple of times on the phone. Doesn't look too accurate on some, but it shows where we have been a bit of the time. The first route is the walking tour in the Gold Coast area.  http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/688940
http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/688809

4/20/2010 Teaching All Day

Today was a training day followed by walks through the Denver Airport and Midway Airport in Chicago. I left my pedometer in my suitcase where I put it yesterday when I went through security, thus I have no record of the distance I walked today. Normally, however, when doing a training, I clock between 3-5 miles. We also chose to walk to our gate at the Denver airport instead of taking the shuttle trains, and we walked to our rental car at Midway, so I have no doubt I walked close to 5 miles today. We started the day at 7:00 AM and ended it at 11:30 when we arrived at our hotel in the Chicago area.  We lucked out on the rental car from Hertz. Started with a Ford Focus, but before we even got out of the garage, I noticed a strange sound coming from the right wheel area, so we returned it and they exchanged it for this cute cube! Lots of fun to drive, and just my size. I could even reach the rooftop.

4/19/2010 Denver

Flew to Denver today, and then drove on to the Technology Center area where I will be doing a workshop tomorrow. I took out my pedometer when I went through security at the airport and forgot to put it back in, so not sure how far I walked through airports today, but my training partner Kathy and I went for a short walk after dinner and then I went for another walk later in the evening. I needed to get some copies made and there was a Fed Ex copy place about a 1/2 mile from the hotel. Now back in the old days I would have driven up there, but instead this provided me with a great opportunity to get in a mile long walk. The streets here are all set up with big medians, so crossing the street in the middle of a block is pretty difficult--keeps pedestrians safe and lengthened my walk a bit, too. I caught this great sunset picture and cloud formation as I was heading back to the hotel. Thunderstorms had been in the area during the day, and this sure looks like one big thunder cloud.  My route tonight is here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/686873

4/18/2010 Port of Skagit

Back home again and today I headed for my walk about 2:30 this afternoon on the Port trails. It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people out on the trails, as is pretty common on Sundays. The parking lot was full when I got there. There must have been some sort of fly-in event at the airport, because I have never seen so many planes taking off and landing during one of my walks. This biplane was one of the ones that flew overhead just as I started my walk.
I walked for an hour today. It was so nice out, and I covered 2.88 miles on the loop along Ovenell Road.
When you consistently walk the same areas over time, you notice small differences. Today as I was finishing the loop through the woods on the trail, I noticed a large tree that had just recently lost a large limb. I'm guessing it was during the most recent windstorm we had while I was gone a couple of weeks ago. It also looks like there had been a cross country race through the trails a while back as it is pretty clearly marked with red Xs and arrows defining a route. That would be a great place to run a race. As I walked today, I was reminded of how lucky I am to live in a place so close to all the amenities i could ever need, and yet to be able to walk in a forest filled with huge old growth timber just 10 minutes from my home.  My route is here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/685018

4/17/2010 Rest Areas and Birthdays

Today I drove to Wenatchee and back for Alice's birthday party. She will be two years old Monday. Since I have been gone so much, and have to leave again on Monday morning, I opted to drive over and back in one day. My walk(s) today were two 15 minute walks at rest stops on the way over and back. Not a bad way to get in 30 minutes of walking if you are travelling. It forces you out of the car for a bit to take a break and if you do it in 15 minute segments, it doesn't delay your trip that long. No pictures of my walks in the rest area, how boring would that be? But I do have a picture from the birthday party.

Since I take pictures on all of my walks and always have my camera with me, Alice likes to look at it whenever I have it out and tries to take pictures, so I decided a good gift for her was her own camera. She was taking "pictures" of everything today, people, bugs, basketball hoop, toys, dolls. You name it, she took pictures of it. Pretty fun to see her model what we do.

I didn't leave Wenatchee until almost 8:00, but stopped at Starbucks in Leavenworth for coffee, so I did a 15 minute walk up and down the street there. Pretty safe place to walk.

4/16/2010 Port of Skagit Upper Loop

I am glad that I take pictures on my walks so I can use them to remind me of where I have walked when I get behind in my posts. Today I did the upper loop at the Port of Skagit, 2.27 miles in about 48 minutes. I delayed my walk until almost 6:00 PM, but the weather ended up being pretty nice out by then. Everything is really greening up at the port area now; grass is growing along all the trails. Blackberry bushes are coming back to life, and it is definitely spring everywhere. The Port of Skagit has its own security people and the security guy must have passed me like 7 times today. Not sure what he must have thought I was doing, but I noticed him watching me when I took a picture of a blooming tree outside one of the office buildings. Maybe he thought I was a corporate spy? At any rate, it seemed like every time I turned a corner, there he was. Might have just been doing his rounds and it was coincidental that I was walking the same area. No one out tonight on the trail. That seemed a bit odd to me, but then again, it was a Friday night, and maybe other people have better things to do than go for a walk at 6:00 PM on a Friday night. My route can be found here: http://www.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip/682343