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Fitness Destinations

EHS Faculty and staff "traveling" to fitness

Led by School Nurse Sue Richards, the EHS faculty and staff are logging "miles" based on the many ways we are trying to keep moving during this time we're all confined to home during the pandemic.

  • We made it back to Madison on May 12! This is beautifully timed! As we return from these 60 weeks of virtual world travel, we are simultaneously sending our Seniors out into the real world!
  • We had 7 travelers this week and made it 230 miles. This puts us in beautiful Calumet City, Illinois!
  • We had 15 travelers and we made it 362.2miles and we are in the amazing town of Ann Arbor Michigan! 
  • Week 57 finds us in Brighton, Ontario. There are 11 of us who traveled the 294 miles from Ticonderoga, NY. 
  • This week we had 13 travelers and we covered 419 miles. This brings us back to the U.S. and settling into Ticonderoga, New York for week 56!
  • We have arrived in French speaking Saint-Felicien, Quebec. Thank you all for the wonderful response to the request for miles...We logged 753.9! We had 27 travelers over the past 2 weeks join our crew.
  • Oh Canada! We made it across the Davis Strait, on the Northern Atlantic and are now in Iqaluit on Baffin Island, Canada. We had 18 travelers this week for a total of 508 miles.
  • Week 51 finds us Nuuk, Greenland. We had a much larger group this week! Thank you for the awesome response for my plea for miles! We had 14 staff/faculty/friends traveling this week. We boarded Air Iceland Connect in Reykjavik and traveled the 3 hour flight, 895 miles to Nuuk.
  • We make it to Reykjavik! There were 7 of us who collected 207 miles! Did you know that Reykjavik is the most northern capital city in the world? One really cool (or should I say warm!) vacation spot is the Blue Lagoon. This short video clip will give you a relaxing peek at this wonderful geothermal bath.
  • Week 49 brings us to the small (319 population) seaside village of Vik, Iceland. The 6 of us traveled 160 miles this week. If you are a Game of Thrones fan, this place will look very familiar!
  • We made it! We needed 254 miles to get all the way to Iceland and 11 of us made it 279 miles! Believe it or not...it is 40 degrees warmer in Hofn, Iceland, than it is here this afternoon (Feb 14); they have a high today of 45 degrees! (High in Madison was 2 above.)
  • After a two-week rest, 8 of us made it 258 miles (nautical miles) to the Faroe Islands, a self-governing archipelago, part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It comprises 18 rocky, volcanic islands between Iceland and Norway in the North Atlantic Ocean, connected by road tunnels, ferries, causeways and bridges.
  • We traveled 244 miles from Portree, Isle of Skye to Kirkwall, which is the largest city in the Orkney Islands. We are still in Scotland but hope to be heading up toward Iceland...There were 6 of us this week!
  • Awrite! (Scottish for Hello!) It was a week of hiking and ferry travel. The 14 of us made it Portee, Scotland. We covered 353 rugged miles this week. The Isle of Skye is breathtaking! 
  • Greetings from Belfast, Northern Ireland! We had 11 travelers these past 2 weeks and we have managed to put in 244 miles. Belfast is the birthplace of the ill fated Titanic and home to the Titanic Museum. An amazing architectural creation. 
  • Our 8 hikers this week traveled 252 miles to our resting spot for the holidays in Ardmore, County Waterford, Ireland! Ardmore's small, secluded bay stretches out towards the vast and wild Atlantic Ocean. The mile-long stretch of sandy beach is bounded on one side by gently rolling hills sprinkled with farmhouses, on the other by rugged cliffs against which the waves crash in great splashes of sparkling sea foam. Here is a 3 minute fly over of this gorgeous spot
  • We traveled 209 miles from Stratford England this week to land in the beautiful seaport village of Holyhead, Anglesey, Wales. We had 9 hikers in all. Enjoy this 2-minute video of "why I love Anglesey." It's a snapshot of life in this part of the world. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej36VxlUGNg

  • We blasted through the Chunnel and the Straits of Dover! We had a productive week traveling from Ostend, Belgium to Stratford-upon-Avon, England. We had a few more along for the hike, 11 in all and we made it 272 miles.

  • This week, 8 of us traveled 168.5 miles, putting us in the "must see" city by the sea, Ostend, Belgium, the home of artist James Ensor.

  • Hello from beautiful Amsterdam!  We had a ball traveling through Belgium and the southern portion of the Netherlands. The distance this week was 251 miles and we bumped back up to 11 travelers.
  • We had 8 travelers this week, covering 223 miles to Luxembourg, one of the smallest countries. Luxembourg is a landlocked country in Western Europe bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France to the south. The country of Luxembourg is smaller than Dane county by 240 square miles! There are three official languages: German, French, and Lëtzebuergesch (Luxembourgish).
  • We made it to Stuttgart, Germany, the home of Porsche! We managed to cross the Swiss Alps with a small but mighty group of 7 this week, covering 236 miles!

  • This week we find ourselves in beautiful St. Moritz, Switzerland. We had 10 hikers this week and traveled 295.5 miles!

  • Seven travelers covered 287 miles of breathtaking countryside to the Cinque Terre in Italy, which gets its name from the five picturesque villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Rio Maggiore.

  • We had 11 travelers this week and have logged 181 miles. We decided to stop at mile 151 though, to take in Rome! Did you know: Modern Rome has 280 fountains and more than 900 churches! Nearly 700,000 euros worth of coins are tossed into Rome's Trevi Fountain each year? That's $816,000 per year!

  • This week, 8 of us find ourselves in Pompei! It was a hilly hike but we made the 162 miles in record time.  

  • 8 of us logging in this week. We covered 170 miles.

    While the weather was only in the 50s here, our travels took us to 80 degrees and sunny Bari, Italy.
  • 9 of us traveled 419 miles to reach the seaside town of Budva, Montenegro. Budva is a town in Montenegro on the Adriatic Sea. Part of the Budva Riviera, it's known for sandy beaches and nightlife.

  •  We covered 390 miles this week, traveling due west across northern Turkey and Greece. The 10 of us will spend a few days here on Lake Kerkini, an artificial reservoir located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It was created as a national work project in 1932.  We are in the heart of a premier birding flyway and the migration season is in full swing.

  •  We covered a total of 1,372 miles these last 2 weeks with 19 travelers! It took an extra week to get to Istanbul as we ran into a recently retired EHS faculty member who insisted that we take time for "a dip" in the Black Sea. 

    Well, it ended up being more than just "a dip" but Wade DallaGranna and Katie Kornaus logged the 5 extra miles to give us that push to get us to Istanbul! 

    We ended up spending a couple of days in Samsun, Turkey. Which was a delight...get it? Here is a timelapse of our one of days there: 

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX9hxgxOLgg

  • What a beautiful day here in Baku, Azerbaijan! ...Sunny and 84 today with a slight breeze off of the Caspian Sea. We have been traveling for the past 2 weeks from base camp at the foothills of Nanga Parbat, Afghanistan. The 13 travelers managed to get in a little over 1,200 miles. We stopped in Turkmenbashi, Turkmenistan on Wednesday and decided to take the ferry across the Caspian sea. That was a 30 hour crossing!

  • This week, 12 travelers covered 275 miles to make camp at the base of Nanga Parbat! This is also known as Pakistan's Killer Mountain. The highest peak is 26,600 feet above sea level, making it the 9th highest mountain in the world! One positive aspect of the covid pandemic during the March lockdown... the air pollution decreased enough that these mountains could be seen for the first time in decades at over 125 miles away! Click here!

  • We combined weeks 20 and 21 for a total of 927 miles covered by 21 travelers! We covered some roughed terrain but managed to make it to Jalandhar in the state of Punjab, India

  • This week our 12 travelers took us 320 miles to Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal

  • This week 11 travelers covered 572 miles to Trongsa, Bhutan - "Kuzu zangp la"! ("Hello" in Dzongkha-the national language of Bhutan)!

  • We had 15 travelers this week and covered 542 miles taking us to Dibrugarh, the Tea City of India in the northern piece of India that is situated between Myanmar, China, Bhutan, and Bangladesh

  • Eight travelers and we covered 375 miles. We have landed in Putao, Myanmar. Please allow 5 minutes to immerse yourself in this beautiful part of the world... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMn1eMVt3kU 

  • Our 13 travelers covered 540 miles to Kunming, China, the gateway to the celebrated Silk Road https://www.ancient.eu/Silk_Road/ that facilitated trade with Tibet, Sichuan, Myanmar, India and beyond.

  • We made it to Chongqing, China. We had 17 travelers and we covered 528 miles! See a short video from Connor Curliss '13 who lives in Chongqing teaching English as a second language!

  • 11 travelers moved 514 miles through Anqing, China, putting us right outside Wuhan. Read about this city that has been so much in the spotlight lately.

  • 16 traveleres managed to swim the 340 miles of the Yellow Sea and made shore in Shanghai, China! Nurse Sue found us a beautiful spot to visit at the Yuyuan Garden ("Happiness Garden") right in the heart of Shanghai.

  • 20 travelers covered 1170 miles! This puts us smack dab in the center of Seoul, South Korea!

  • 16 travelers made it 873 miles... this put us smack dab in the middle of the Sea of Okhotsk. SO.... Nurse Sue took the liberty of booking us on an Aeroflot plane to go the extra 405 mile to land on Sakhalin Island, Russia; we will be staying in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

  • 15 travelers logged 852 miles across the Bering Sea, landing us in Attu Island, Alaska, a birder's paradise supported by the National Parks Service.

  • 23 travelers logged (another new record) 1308 miles, taking us to Dutch Harbor, Alaska (also known as Unalaska, Alaska), on one of the Aleutian Islands. While our "hikers" covered 1308 miles, the total distance traveled included about 400 unhikable miles, so Nurse Sue "booked" us on Alaska Airlines to Dutch Harbor!

  • 23 travelers logged a (new) record 910 miles (thank you bikers!), taking usalong the Alaskan Highway to find ourselves settling in for the week in Destruction Bay in Canada's Yukon!

  • 22 travelers logged a record 886 miles, taking us to Dease Lake, B.C., in Canada, a small community located in the Cassiar Country of the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada, a few hours south of the Yukon border.

  • 29 travelers headed north and made it 783 miles to Clearwater, B.C., in Canada, a gorgeous town called "The Gateway to Wells Grey Park." 

  • 23 travelers went 750 miles and we made it to Rome for Holy Week! Rome, Oregon, that is. Rome, Oregon, got its name from rock formations called the pillars of Rome outside the town limits.

  • 470 miles farther down the road to Ten Sleep, Wyoming, at the base of the Big Horn Mountains next to the Ten Sleep Canyon.

  • 502 miles to Chamberlain, South Dakota, a beautiful little town on the Missouri river.

Each week, EHS faculty and staff have been sending School Nurse Sue Richards an account of all the creative ways we're finding to keep moving. A "distance" is assigned to each exercise or movement from activities with kids and yardwork or housework to pilates and yoga, as well as actual miles logged while running, walking and biking. At the end of each week, Sue tallies up the "miles" and lets us know how far we've traveled! 

Originally our journey was set to end at the conclusion of the semester, but a resounding number wanted to keep going, so our journey continues!

Faculty and staff: Continue to send your week's activity through 5 p.m. Saturday to [email protected] and she will let us know where it takes us!