Spontaneous Mall Walk

Today is Sunday, and normally, Sunday is our obligatory mall walk. But since it is a long, holiday weekend, we had decided we would forgo our usual stroll. We already had plans to meet Jade at Twisted Fork for brunch, which was great because I enjoyed having brunch with her, but awful because neither the service nor food was very good. But after brunch, we opted to go to the mall to see about getting a cute onesie for the little one from Flashback. We didn't realize we would actually be pacing any distance just to go get a cute onesie. But after Flashback, Jade and her friend, Dan, wanted to go to FYE to look around, so we decided to go with them. About halfway to FYE, Cliff and I realized that we were missing out on prime Charity Mile recording. So, we set our phones for the rest of our shopping excursion. Shopping didn't last very much longer, but it was long enough to make for a very tired baby. And since I recorded 0.5 miles, I was able to get at least one meal for someone hungry. Hurrah!

Mall Stroll to Help Feeding America

Today, Cliff and I opted to go to the mall for a walk after Ramsey's morning nap. We've been regularly going to the mall on Sunday mornings to meet up with another mom and dad and their little boy. Today, another mom joined in on the baby playtime, which we opted to do before the walk. I started the Charity Miles app before we walked into the mall, so the time seems really long for a 2.5-mile walk, but that's because it includes the stop for the playtime, which lasted about 30 minutes or so, as well as other stops during the actual walk. At any rate, Ramsey had a great time playing with the other kids, and they both did well in their strollers after getting to spend some time playing with toys on the mall floor. Ramsey even did some crawling to contribute her movement towards the miles. By the time we stopped for lunch, we had amassed 5 meals for Feeding America. Not bad for a morning stroll.

Feeding America on a Sleepy Stroll

As is becoming our normal Sunday routine, we opted to go to the mall and make a few rounds with a couple friends and their cute little boy. The little tikes got a bit of playtime, but I could tell our girl just wasn't feeling it today. But we still managed to circle the upper level twice and the lower level once, which equated to 1.25 miles, or 2.5 meals. Not bad for leisurely walk with our sleepy girl.

Strolling the Mall for Feeding America

Today, Cliff, Ramsey and I met with a couple of friends and their cute little boy to stroll the mall. I didn't make the same mistakes this time that I made last week. I stayed on 3G and was vigilant about restarting the app whenever I paused it. It was definitely a leisurely walk with a little baby playtime thrown in for good measure. We walked a little over a mile and got over 2.5 meals to feed hungry people. So, since Cliff did his app as well, together we amassed that's 5 meals. Yea!

Feeding America Despite Technical Difficulties

I started a new group called "Grow With Me" on Meetup in an effort to try to meet parents with children close in age to Ramsey. I posted an event for this morning to stroll the mall with our babies. I wanted to get exercise with Ramsey and Cliff that would be out of the heat and at a relatively easy pace. There were forces conspiring against my third reason of strolling to benefit Feeding America.

First, I had scheduled my stroll for 10:30 a.m. No one signed up for my event, but I still wanted to get to the mall around that time should anyone just show up despite the lack of RSVPs. At almost the exact moment we stepped out of our house to travel to the mall, there was torrential rain. But we hurried to the car and travelled onward to the mall.

When we got to the mall, both Cliff and I started our Charity Miles app on our separate phones so we could try to get as much benefit as possible to Feeding America. We opted for the "Indoor Walk" option which uses our accelerometer in the phones to gauge the distance. Once I set it, I placed the phone on the stroller and we started off. That was the second force. I didn't realize that the smooth ride of the stroller was interfering with the accelerometer. After about 15 minutes, the app had only logged 0.04 miles for me, so I thought it would take forever to get to a mile at that rate. I asked Cliff what his phone read, and it said 0.35 miles. We both figured it was because of the smooth ride on the stroller, so I shoved the phone in my pocket. This fixed that issue.

While we were walking, I noticed that the mall had free WiFi. I was so excited I quickly connected with my phone. Little did I know this would be the app's undoing. I finally managed to get to 1 mile on my phone after an hour of walking (although there were some stops and at one point I paused the app to take a picture and forgot to resume immediately). So, I stopped the app and went through the motions of saving the data. Then I tried to go to my history to see my results. I couldn't get the app to load the history. I rebooted my phone and kept quitting and restarting the app. Finally, Cliff suggested I get off the WiFi, and once I did the app restarted with no problems. But alas, my results had not saved. I blame it all on the stupid WiFi because I'm sure they would have saved if I had just stayed on my 3G.

Luckily, Cliff's phone accurately logged our stroll, so I at least have something to show for it, but it could have been more. At any rate, we did 1.4 miles in 60 minutes and provided nearly 3 meals to hungry people. And look at the picture of me and Ramsey by the sign in the mall. We were destined to help Feeding America today.