Yup, you guessed it. The shoes didn't work. I broke them in all week and was super excited for our hike planned for the weekend. We decided to head up to Malibu and take a short hike with weighted packs up to Escondido Falls. Sounds exhilarating, right, a waterfall in Malibu? Well, first of all, it was more like a water trickle. But it was nice. Mochi appreciated wading in the water. We've learned that little, black, fluffy dogs were not made for hot hikes a long time ago. And apparently, neither were my boots. I was fussing over them the entire way up to the falls. Changing lace configuration, making them tighter, then looser, I just kept trying to fix what felt wrong. I couldn't seem to make enough adjustments. Finally, when we were heading back, I began to have shooting pains in the ball of my left foot. That's no good. And this was after a pretty short hike on easy terrain. I had to trek all the way back to the car, up and down hill, with 35 pounds in my pack. This all happened last Sunday, by the way, and my foot continued to hurt through this past thursday. So, the next day (last Monday) I returned to Adventure 16 to tell them my tale. The guy there was not surprised that I had that problem. His explanation was that I was sold the wrong boot. The shoe I was sold was not meant to carry extra weight (i.e. 35 pounds in my pack), and it would not make it more than 3 months or so of everyday use. Great. So, back to square 1. After many, many more shoes tried on, I ended with a pair of Vasque Gortex (aka waterproof) high top boots. These will supposedly do the work for my feet. We didn't hike this weekend. I wanted to give my foot a break, and the shoe a fair chance, and poor Seth had to work. So, once again, I'll keep you posted on the shoe situation. On another note... I visited the Patagonia store in Santa Monica to find they were having a sale. Always a plus. I've decided that the best exercise type underwear I own has been the Patagonia W's Active Hipster (and Barely Hipster). They come in a bunch of cool patterns and colors and you don't even feel them on you. They are wicking and smooth against the body. I highly recommend them. Also, I got my traveling pants. I bought my jeans from Patagonia in hopes that they are more durable than all the other jeans I own that end up with holes in all the wrong places. Also, I bought my fleece layer. I ended up with the Better Sweater, in magenta. That's going to look nice with my lime green rain jacket!

[caption id="attachment_185" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Hopefully this one was actually made for walking (with 30 lbs on my back)"][/caption]