5 at 5

For the last 2 and a half weeks our family has been going on a 5k walk at 5pm. It has been a great time for us to get out of the house and enjoy the Porto Alegre Spring weather. Lately it has been really nice. We walk from our house to the mall that is nearby, around the mall twice and then back home. It is a pretty good walk, lasting around an hour. Elisa just hangs out in her stroller eating whatever snack we brought along and requesting for us to pick her the occasional flower.

There is a nice path around the mall that is marked every 100 meters. We see a lot of the same people walking or running nearly everyday.

Interesting thing happened yesterday: As we were walking along the main street across from the mall we suddenly heard a police siren. A car stopped right in front of us and then a Brigada Militar (like the Military Police) truck stopped suddenly. The officers jumped out of their vehicle with guns drawn (sidearm and shotgun) and yelled to the car "slowly step away from the car with your hands up!" It took me a second to register what was happening, but not Jennifer. She was pushing Elisa in the stroller at warp speed! We got out of there as quickly as possible. In a situation like that you never know what will happen and we didn't want to find out.

Anyway, family walks are fun and typically uneventful. They have become part of the routine and are a great way for me and Jennifer to bounce ideas off each other about our upcoming move to the states.