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| Space Shuttle Discovery National Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center |
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| Washington Monument at Sunset |
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| Lincoln Memorial & Reflecting pool |
Then, on to Niagara Falls (both US side and Canadian):
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| American Falls |
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| Niagara River, looking towards Buffalo, NY |
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| Horseshoe Falls from NY side |
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| Bridal Veil Falls |
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| American Falls & Bridal Veil Falls, from Niagara, ON |
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| View of Niagara Falls from Rainbow Bridge |
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| Rainbow over Niagara |
Next, we visited the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto
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| Statue just inside the entrance to the HHOF |
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| My very handsome young men with the Stanley Cup |
We hiked Letchworth State Park in Geneseo, NY:
This place was absolutely beautiful! If you ever get a chance to go, it's worth the trip!
We rested for a day and a half while visiting family in Albany, NY and then spent two days in NYC. We toured the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Top o' the Rock, The 9/11 Museum and Memorial, walked through the Eastern side of Central Park (to and from the Met southward.) We went to dinner at Carmine's (delicious!) and basically just enjoyed many of the sights and sounds of The City :)
We returned home on Wednesday night, had Open House at the boys' high school on Thursday evening and I've been running errands all day today.
Now, I'm home and figured I needed to say "hi." It's been a crazy whirlwind two and a half weeks and I'm exhausted! But, it was awesome and I would do it again in a heartbeat!
So, how did I do with two and a half weeks of no gym, family visits, vacation? Wish I could say I did great -- but I had the backward slide. Stepped on the scale yesterday morning to find I've gained back 6 of the almost ten pounds I had lost. NOT GOOD. But, stepping on the scale this morning I did find 2.4 of those pounds are gone - so I'm hoping some of the weight gain is just due to bloat from being off my regular routine.
It's amazing, my Fitbit tracked that I walked a total of 155,143 steps in those 10 days! I walked over 26 thousand steps (yes, you read that correctly) on two of those days. There were only 2 days that I didn't make my step goal. 155,143 steps equaled 61 miles of walking and I climbed the equivalent of 288 floors! You would think that with all of this walking -- I would be doing great. Well, guess this is where quality of exercise outweighs quantity. As you can see, I walked and I walked a lot. Did I sweat - well, it was warm in NYC :) Let's just say we didn't exactly get our heart pumping during those walks. I would say the only time my heart rate increased was in Ontario - there was this hill (a.k.a Hill from Hell) that was awful. I'm not exactly sure how long it is, but it steadily climbs at a fairly steep incline. We walked this hill about 5 times over the course of 2 days! Never. Wish. To see. This. Hill. Again. Anyway, I won't whine about the Hill from Hell anymore - it didn't kill me - probably made me stronger :) Ha! So, I did have moments when my heart rate came up -- in Niagara, at Letchworth, walking quickly to get to The Met in NYC (walked from 42nd street to 82nd St.) Anyway, you get it - I walked and walked and walked. But, apparently, those heart rate increasing moments were too few and not enough.
I'll admit, my food intake was pretty poor too. Normally I try to keep my calories between 1200 and 1500 calories per day, sometimes a little lower, sometimes slightly higher - but average is around 1300. At this intake rate, as long as I was getting quality exercise, I was averaging about a pound a week weight loss. I let myself go on vacation, made bad food choices, skipped meals trying to make up for the fact that some of my meals were much higher calorie/richer foods - basically did everything wrong there. SIGH.
So, now what? Well, I haven't been back to the gym yet. Unfortunately, everything is crazy hectic this week. Between back to school shopping, grocery shopping, school functions, doctor's appointments, etc., etc. I haven't been able to get there. But I did get outside and walked a bit more briskly. I made my steps (actually more) and walked my 5 miles. Goal is to get to the gym tomorrow and Sunday for quick workouts and then to get into the "meat" of my daily routine on Monday. See, the boys return to school next week and I will finally have a few hours during the day that are just my own! Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!
I could get discouraged by my weight gain and I won't kid you, I did cuss myself out yesterday when I stepped onto the scale. But, what good does that do? It's not going to make the weight disappear (well, 2.4 pounds obviously got scared enough to run - lol) I need to get to the gym, I need to recommit myself to healthy eating, I need to work!
