Meet Teddy.  This little fellow was on his daily exercise jaunt when he ran to five ladies willing to toss the ball to him for a little while. While we enjoyed coffee, tea, scones and croissants relaxing on the park benches, Teddy entertained us for quite some time with his exuberant clumsiness. At one point the ball projected off his nose straight into a fence which he promptly ran into and bounced off at least a yard high in the air. Un-phased he came back for more until he exhausted himself, reported back to his “parents” and collapsed.  They promptly turned to us with big smiles and a hearty. “Thank you!”  A nice trip to a New York Park. 🙂

Wow — We cannot say thank you enough to all of those who have supported us through these past 18 months as we have worked to raise money for the AVON WALK.  Each of us set a goal of raising $1800 which is required to do the walk.  But….each of us exceeded this goal raising at least $2000, and a few members reached nearly $3000 for individually.  Yes, we worked hard, but all of that would have come to nothing without support of family and friends.  SO THANK YOU!!! SO VERY MUCH!!  Every step we take …. hopefully gets us closer to a cure.

An absolute plus that we’ve enjoyed with our training for the Avon Walk is the beautiful places we have explored as we venture out to walk. Lynne took a trek down this gorgeous nature path on her recent trip to Iowa.  Her cousin Mike found this  escape from city streets so she could log in her daily miles.

Doesn’t get much better than this. 🙂

At the Johnson family cabin in Michigan, we make several canoe/kayak trips down the Little Manistee River whenever we visit.  And, as far as we know, every single time we take the trip, we are followed by a blue heron.  “Followed” is not exactly correct, as the heron will appear ahead of the canoe and just as we come closer, it will fly along to the next bend and wait for us.  Kind of like being stalked in a forward fashion.

So, we found it interesting to note that on Laurie and Cathy’s recent walk along the strand in Manhattan Beach — who did they find — but a heron.  Not sure whether or not it flew in from Michigan, but we are curious to see if it shows up in New York City in a few weeks.

We’ll be on the lookout for a heron in NYC!

Just a few more weeks before our trip to NYC!  You’ll find most of us trying to fit in as much walking as possible;  not only to keep in physical shape, but also to test out our shoes and socks to avoid our biggest nemesis – BLISTERS.  We’ve tried everything from socks that cost as much as the national debt, to Butt Paste (diaper ointment), sock liners and covering our feet in moleskin.  We figure one of these will work.  Wish us luck.  Any suggestions are appreciated. 🙂

We are just over six weeks away from our adventure in NEW YORK CITY!  A total of 39 miles we will walk for a cure.  Our team has met our overall goal and we continue to raise even more funds for the Avon Walk Foundation.  Our feet are working toward our goal of being able to make the walk with no blisters or too much fatigue.  We’ve been walking, and walking and walking.  Short walks during the week – long ones on the weekend.  We will be ready.

Our fund raising events are all in the past – we’ve had great success thanks to the overwhelming support of our friends.  The Booby Trap raised almost $4000, our Pink Party, $4500, the Pint House event nearly $5000 and the cookbook project another $1000.  Woohoo!

We’ve now added our website/blog so folks can check in our adventure!  We’ll post our thoughts and pictures on all the adventures of THE PINK BRA-GADE.