Walk It Off

The first spring/summer that I lived in this neighborhood I had a little ritual I’d do with Symphony (who was about 18 months old at the time). Every morning after breakfast we’d get dressed and I’d take her for a walk around the Seawall in her stroller. We’d head down to English Bay (stopping to grab a snack for the walk) and go around Stanley Park, past Second and Third Beaches, Siwash Rock and under the Lion’s Gate Bridge. We’d go as far as Lumberman’s Arch, and then we’d cut through the park towards Lost Lagoon and come out at Georgia St and head home. We’d get back just in time for Sym to have lunch and her afternoon nap.

It’s one of my fondest memories of her toddlerhood, and when I was pregnant with Gwen I was very much looking forward to starting a similar ritual with her, and after our family walks on this weekend I have extra impetus. Usually I wake up in the morning with terrible back pain, the sort of pain that makes it difficult to even lift my baby out of her crib, but on Saturday after our walk I woke up with hardly any pain at all, and it was the same on Monday. I obviously need to get out and be more active, and since I’d rather eat glass than start going to the gym again, restarting my morning mommy & baby Seawall walks is the best plan.

Now that spring break is over, as the nice weather holds Gwen & I can walk Sym to school in the morning and then continue on to the Seawall from there. I doubt if I’ll be able to tackle my old route right away; it’s about 11km and I’m SUPER out of shape, our weekend walks were only about 4km and I was pretty toasted afterwards. We’ll see how it goes, I guess. Anyway, the more often I walk the better shape I’ll be in so the further I can go!

These are the only pictures I have from one of these walks, on a day (May 15th, 2003) that turned crappy and started raining so instead of going all the way around I cut back to Lost Lagoon from Second Beach. Sym and I were such tiny babies then!