Cool Bloggers Walking Club: Week 2

Woot, woot. Another week of walking is in the books!

:::Week 1 Recap:::

BLOG FRIEND WALKS

First up this week, it’s Sabine joining in from the Netherlands.

I did take at least 3-4 walks either with our daughter and also a shorter walk with my parents, and of course cycled almost every day (but this is more a form of transportation). Please find attached impressions – the clouds were even prettier in person (after a dinner outside) and the other picture is from morning dew in our allotment/vegetable garden/community garden. 

Also attached is a postcard that I recently found and it made me think of you (made and distributed by the student church in our small university town). I hope that you like it.

Love the walking photos and, of course, the lighthouse artwork and accompanying sentiment.

Engie and Hannah are walking in Wisconsin! She has a GREAT play-by-play of their first week of walks over on her blog. (If you want the summary: Hannah and I walked this week, rain or shine, dark or light.)

Suzanne has been joining in from Ohio:

Thanks so much for putting together the Cool Bloggers Walking Club – which I accidentally keep calling the “Cool Walkers Blogging Club” haha. [Either works!!]

I have been so thrilled to join in this past week. We live in SW Ohio and the weather has been perfection here. I have four children- 12, 10, 7 and 3 years old. As with anyone with kids those ages, we are very busy, but it has been so wonderful to prioritize walking each day. My goal is walk outside each day in October. 

Here is what I’ve done so far: 

• Oct 1- walk around our back acre 
• Oct 2- walk around our back acre right before sunset after getting home from a haircut
• Oct 3- walk around our back acre 
• Oct 4- went for a hike after church 
• Oct 5- walked around a local park putting in flags for a cross country meet the next day. Our team walked for 3 hours straight setting up the 1/2 mile, 1 mile, 2 mile and 3.1 mile courses! 
• Oct 6- I didn’t intentionally walk, but I coached my cross country team (the Junior Royals) in their runs, then cheered my middle school daughter in her run, then stuck around to pick up all the flags from the courses. No intentional walk, but I did hit 15k steps that day! 
• Oct 7- walk around the back field 
• Oct 8- went for a run at the park 

It’s been a wonderful habit to build! Thank you again for prompting me to do this! 

Nicole sent along a happy collage full of adventures with Rex.

All the heart eyes for this picture!!! Sarah writes: My walk-or-die BFF. The best dog in the world– as long as she runs for 30 minutes and walks for 60 every day.

San sent along an awesome collage from her exercise adventures in California and Nevada.

I got a lot of steps done on the treadmill before work but was also happy to fit in a couple of long runs on the American River Trail, and not one, but two hikes in the beautiful Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe last weekend.

Jacquie writes in from British Columbia:

These photos were taken at Belcarra Park, my favourite place in the lower mainland to visit in the fall. It’s a popular spot for canoeing, paddleboarding, and crab fishing. One fellow thought he was going home to enjoy a crab feast and discovered his haul was a very large starfish, which he returned to the water.

Laura continued exploring the Carolinas, this time South AND North! She was joined by a two-legged and four-legged companion (at least I’m assuming the friend flying in from New York was of the hominid variety and not the canine…).

This past week, a friend from New York flew down to visit. We walked around campus, then traveled to the North Carolina mountains to hike (Mt. Mitchell and Hawksbill Mountain) and explore! And of course, Koda [Laura’s dog] walked every morning possible, even when Isaias’ remnants were just starting up on Saturday morning. Over the years, she’s still been willing to walk in temps between -20*F and 85*F, and in rain and snow. The girl’s pretty tough!

Rachel’s walk in Wales featured a castle (and adorable twin girls)!!

I managed to photograph one walk and it was around Castle Coch with these two! Most of my walks have been school run related but the walking challenge has encouraged me to get out every day and get a bit of fresh air – we are having the most lovely weather October and I will definitely send you some leafy walk photos for next week.

From Sophie:

Week 2 of CBWC on Sunshine Coast, Australia. This week was a hard one to keep up walks. One day I was just too non-stop at the office and didn’t manage, and another day I was in a MOOD and the thought of a walk was too much. But I made myself go outside in my backyard and ended up doing some gardening, which helped my mood and kind of counts? I did do a few lovely walks by the beach and creek in the spring sunshine.

Katy captured these gorgeous flowers on her walk; full recap here!

ELISABETH’S WALKS

DAY 8: THURSDAY

For reasons unknown, I woke up with a very sore right knee. It felt like I had banged into something and bruised it but a) there was no bruise and b) I think I would have remembered banging something that hard. The best I can reckon I must have tweaked something at pickleball?

On tap for the morning was a walk with Joy. She very graciously accommodated my ailment and we opted for a relatively short—and wholly flat—route (harder than you might expect in the town where we live).

The sun was shining, birds were singing, and our walk gave us a great chance to get caught up on all the happenings in each other’s lives.

DAY 9: FRIDAY

I did a Walk and Talk with Kristen (The Frugal Girl).

Sort of.

First, she did a walk along a lovely trail that has wonderful views… and subpar cell coverage. So, we pushed pause on the idea of simultaneous walking and talking in two different countries.

A bit later in the morning, while she was driving, I laced up my sneakers and hit the sidewalks and we did a Drive/Walk and Talk. It worked!

We tackled a lot of topics: blogging, parenting, introversion, how I never leave my Overnight Baked French Toast to sit resting overnight and just bake it right away.

A surprising amount of time was spent talking about candy (stay tuned; we have a fun little blog collab in the works). In the course of that conversation, we learned when it comes to Nerd Gummy Clusters my daughter and Kristen both agree the best “colour” is blue. (I’m a hard pass on ALL Nerd Gummy Clusters.)

DAY 10: SATURDAY

John and I fit in a ~6 km walk before he and Belle headed to the airport to collect my father-in-law. It was windy and crisp, but beautifully sunny.

DAY 11: SUNDAY

I was absolutely tuckered after church and errands; as soon as lunch things were cleaned up, I crashed and took a long afternoon nap.

The following day was Thanksgiving and I was on the hunt for French Vanilla ice cream. We had tried multiple stores and they were ALL sold out.

For our walk, I suggested we drive into town to check out a few more places. Success! The first place we tried was fully stocked with French Vanilla ice cream and it was on sale for good measure.

We did a fairly short—but colourful—walk along the waterfront and adjoining trail.

DAY 12: MONDAY

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving. We shuffled meals around and ended up having seafood casserole for dinner. Knowing we had a big meal ahead of us, our little family unit did a 5 km walk together in the early afternoon.

It was warm and muggy, so we removed layers as we walked. Belle and I were partners on the “out” trip, and then we switched things up, and I walked back with Indy as my companion while Belle and John walked together.

DAY 13: TUESDAY

A rather pitiful walk (and it wasn’t actually intentional), but it worked!

We had our annual furnace cleaning scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, and when I went to the basement to make sure everything was in order for the technician, I realized we were out of furnace filters. Oops.

As said technician was backing into the driveway, I was climbing in my vehicle to go buy some replacements. What should have been a quick trip to the hardware store ended up involving a walk. Because of some paving work being done, traffic was at a standstill. I ended up parking and walking from an alternate location.

I got the filters, I fit in a 10 minute walk, and I also popped by the library on my way home because Convenience Store Woman was in for me (Engie’s latest Cool Bloggers Book Club selection.)

DAY 14: WEDNESDAY

Erm. A bit of a cheat from me today.

It was pouring rain and I just… did not want to go outside walking. But I walked over 1 km inside our house in the process of completing multiple loads of laundry (our washing machine/dryer is on a different level from our main living space) and prepping for our turkey dinner!

If you have walking recaps you’d like included next week, send me an e-mail: optimisticmusings {at} gmail {dot} com.

Your turn.

• Strangest thing seen on a walk lately?
• Did you combine a walk with any errands this week?
• Nerds Gummy Clusters: yay or nay? (If yay… what colour is your favourite?)