A New Tradition
I have fond childhood memories of traveling up and down and around the East Coast with my Mom and younger brother, Volksmarching: setting off early in the morning with our most comfortable walking shoes and a little bag of snacks for a 10km (6.2 mile) walk through towns, woods, across college campuses…. One of my favorite walks was the Christmas Walk through Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Not long ago, I decided that the boys were finally old enough to share in the wonders of Voksmarching, and so today we woke early, donned our most comfortable walking shoes, stuffed our backpack with juice pouches, snacks, and a few furry friends (CatCat and Gilbert – formerly known as Jaguar – for Connor and Reindeer for Ryan), and headed toward Old Town Alexandria for a 6.2mile walk beginning at the George Washington Masonic Memorial, winding through Old Town Alexandria and along the Scottish Christmas Walk parade route, and returning to the Memorial. Now, I’ll agree a 6.2 mile walk may have been a bit ambitious to attempt with a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old, but the boys did amazingly well. Ryan walked the entire route on his own, with minimal complaining! (It probably helped that we stopped to watch the Scottish parade – think men and dogs in skirts – and then detoured to a sweet shoppe for a little treat before finishing the second half of the walk.) Connor was a trooper; he rode most of the route in his stroller, but did willingly walk up and down the many stairs at the Memorial. At the end of the walk, the kids received medals and patches for their efforts, and the wonderful volunteers at the end checkpoint made such a fuss over them, that both Ryan and Connor seemed to forget their complaints about the length of the walk and the cold, and said they had such a good time they’d like to do another walk. Well, that’s all I needed to hear; the registration check for our next walk, this time in DC, is already in an envelope, ready to mail. And this time, Grandma is coming with us as well!