Bridge Crossing

Crossing the Bath bridge over the Kennebec River the past two days has afforded a couple of noteworthy Maine sights. On Thursday, I was passed by a large open truck hauling giant mesh bags brimming with seaweed. I presume it was headed to Waldoboro where there is a processing plant. Oddly enough, though I've lived most of my life on the coast, this is the first time I have seen such a truck. Then on Friday, just as I reached the Woolwich side of the bridge, a Bald Eagle glided low, over my van. Though I've seen the soaring of this creature many times over the years, I am always struck by the combination of strength and gracefulness that God created it with. What a beautiful thing to see.

My health summary for the week:

5 of 7 days at the gym
Most of this week was concentrated on my cardio and not weights.
In preparation for the April AT Hike, I am spending time on the treadmill at medium/low speeds but with my incline on 10. I'm feeling the difference in my calves. Now I need to strengthen my knees with the weights so that I don't have a repeat of last year.
Down 4 lbs.
My new favorite treadmill music, using my iPhone Pandora app, is Contemporary Bollywood.
It keeps me clipping along quite nicely.

"Pear"fectly Delicious

Last week I picked up an array of unique fruits for the kids to try and research. They included avocado, mango, papaya and kumquat. The clear taste test winner for them was the mango with kumquat not far behind. Kumquat was a new fruit for me and I quite enjoyed them, sprinkled with a bit of sugar. While living in Australia I was introduced to avocado and pepper sandwiches. I really enjoy them, especially with freshly ground peppercorn. I managed to convince Atira to try one as well. She did eat it but didn't love it enough to have more than one.
The kids wanted to make this food experience a weekly one so today I picked up a few types of pears for them to try, Comice, Red Anjou and Asian. The Asian was interesting. The texture was nearly identical to an apple, yet had the mild taste of a pear. We all agreed that the juicy Red Anjou was our favorite.

Back From Vacation

Well, apparently my blog vacation was much longer than my Florida/Bahamas one! I have been struggling with a general laziness in many areas of my life for the past 6 months. This blog has been one of the more insignificant victims of that malaise, which I am determined, with God's help, is finished. Since returning from our cruise in November, my gym time, until this last week, has been sporadic, at best. I have made a comeback in that area and have had a very productive week. To keep myself accountable and on track, I have decided to post my weekly fitness progress at the end of each Friday's blog. (This will be miraculous, you understand, if it actually occurs.)
Here goes!