Don't Walk 9 Miles in my Shoes

Story & Photography by Cayla Graner

Have you ever bought a pair of shoes for the sole purpose of wearing them for a single event or picture? That was me. I had been planning a trip with one of my friends to go up north to

Boston, and then a day trip to Maine. I was super excited because I love to plan every detail for trips and I had always wanted to go way up north. I decided to buy some brand new duck boots from Poshmark a week before our trip, since it was going to be very cold in December and I wanted to be cute in all my pictures. (Of course) The boots ended up coming in super late and I was barely able to get them in time to put them in my suitcase.

When I finally got to Boston, I saw just how different each city can be. I had lived in Philadelphia for a few years growing up, so I figured Boston would be pretty similar. Although Boston is similar to a busy city, it’s also smaller and feels a lot older. From the cobblestone streets, to walking by old houses owned by Paul

Revere and John Adams, it literally feels like you are walking around in history.

On our first day there, I wore my new boots around the town for about an hour and seemed to be comfortable in them.

The next morning on our first full day in

Boston, we actually took a bus to Portland,

Maine that left at 7 a.m. and came back around 11 p.m. I would highly recommend doing Portland for a day trip! It was only an hour ride from Boston, and the round trip cost from Megabus was only $25! Side note, if you travel alone you can sometimes get deals for $1! Portland is fairly big, but honestly very doable to do in a long day. Our bus dropped us off right at the edge of the little city and then we took another bus (for .75) to the main part of the town and then walked to an awesome donut shop called The Holy Donut. They have some of the best flavors and they make their donuts with potatoes! If you go, definitely try their lemon or peppermint bark donuts! The rest of the day was mainly filled with looking at super cute houses, shops, and historical sites. The piece of the Berlin Wall is cool, as well as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s house. There’s also a place where you can add your lock to a fence where hundreds of others have done the same! And of course we had to go to the harbor and have a lobster roll and clam chowder. Side note, if you go in December like we did, most of the lobster places are closed, so you have to really search to find one at a local restaurant. Gilbert’s Chowder House was really good! It was a beautiful 40 degrees in Portland with sunny skies, and with our full bellies, we felt great and wanted to go looking for some of the lighthouses on the other side of the bay. We thought about calling an Uber, but decided it wasn’t worth the $12 and that we would just walk instead. It

was about an hour and a half walk, but we figured, “Hey, we’re young, we can take the scenic route, we’re in no rush.”

Well the first 45 min was pretty cool. We were excited to see the lighthouses and we thought it was hilarious that we were walking so far. After those 45 min though, we realized the walk was no longer fun, and in certain areas not safe either. We were using GPS the whole time we were walking, so by the time we got to the first lighthouse, my phone was almost dead. The Bug Head lighthouse was very small (I realized why it was called a bug light) but we were determined to keep on walking to the Portland Head lighthouse, which wasn’t too far away. When we finally got to this lighthouse, for a moment, it all seemed worth it. The sky was a dark blue and the lighthouse looked beautiful and majestic as it sat on a red and white house on top of a mountain/cliff where you could see the water crashing below. We stayed for about 30 min and then realized it was getting dark. We knew it would take way too long to get back to the main port by walking, and it was starting to sprinkle. Plus, my feet were starting to hurt. We finally caved in and bought an Uber, but as my friend purchased the Uber, her phone died. We just hoped they would be able to find us before it got too dark. The uber pulled in, and we were so relieved. We were worried though that both our phones were almost, if not completely dead. I think God was watching over us that day, because in the back of the Uber car were two charging ports and candy to snack on! I was so happy I almost cried and gave the Uber driver a big tip! When we were finally dropped off, we were starving, and starting to get cold. We found a place to eat called Duck Fat, and I don’t know if it was just because we were hungry, or the food was just that good, but it was some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life. Apparently the place is always packed in the summer, but go there if you can! We had duck fat poutine and a really good cranberry pecan salad. If you don’t know what poutine is, it’s basically cheese curds, french fries, and gravy. I’ve never had it with duck fat gravy, but I don’t think I can ever go back now to regular poutine. After dinner, we felt a lot better, but we now had to walk all the way back to where our bus was, a couple miles away. We had to use our phone GPS to get back to the bus and walked in the dark, across some sketchy roads, high traffic intersections (which had some of the shortest pedestrian lights I have ever seen) and just felt nervous about getting back in time. We finally made it to the bus station, and by that time my feet were hurting pretty bad. We were excited though to be on our way back to Boston, and even though our phones were almost dead, we had charging stations in the bus. Well… this bus didn’t have charging stations like the other one. I tried to take a nap and not use my phone to conserve as much charge as I could. We got back to Boston around 11 pm, and all we had to do was walk back to the house we were staying at. Well that would have been great if we had been in Boston for more than a day, and knew our way around. I put in the address for her house, but after it said we were close to the destination, we realized that we were not at our destination, and for some reason my address took us to the opposite part of town. At that moment I broke down in tears. My feet felt like I was walking on needles, with every step more painful than the last. I was walking so slow, even though it was late and we were trying to get home as quick as possible. My friend was able to find the right address on her phone, so we tried walking back. She didn’t tell me until after we got home, but apparently her phone was about to die and she was praying that we would make it home before we were lost again, late at night in a city we didn’t know. I had my shoes off, and was walking in my thick wool socks on the street because it was a little less painful on my feet. A little after midnight, we finally made it to our house. I was still crying from the pain, worry, and just exhaustion of the day as I tried to walk up those now impossible three flights of stairs. I took off my shoes and realized why my feet were hurting so

bad. I had over six blisters on each of my feet that were the size of a whopper candy. I had them on my toes, the sides of my feet, and the bottom of my heel. As I was walking in my blisters throughout the day, they were filling with fluid and the pressure from my feet were causing them to be stressed enough to almost pop. I looked at my phone and screenshot my steps from the day because they were so crazy. 20,000 steps. 20,000 steps in one day in a brand new pair of shoes. I almost started laughing because my feet looked so silly and I felt so stupid for wearing brand new shoes on a long adventure. It was honestly a miracle we even made it back to the house that night. I have three tips for you if you ever go on a trip to Maine.

1. Just take the Uber, you’ll get there faster.

2. Bring portable chargers to charge your phone if you are going to be using GPS.

3. Don’t walk 8.9 miles in brand new shoes, even if they are cute in pictures...