Most of us have a favorite pair of shoes.  Maybe it’s a pair of wool clogs, or some dingy old trainers, or a pair of shiny heels.  For the past three months I’ve worn the same shoes every day – a pair of women’s Vasque Bulr GTX.  I know it’s not the right thing to do, pediatrically speaking, but they’ve been amazing.

The gore-tex version of these shoes is what I’ve got.  That means they keep the water out, but they still breathe.  I tested them pretty seriously, walking up and down the rainy hills of Tuscany and the snowy slopes of the Alps.  They even kept my feet dry during an exploded pipe/flooding incident in the hills of Italy while everyone else had sopping wet feet.  They made it through the floods of Venice without incident, and recovered nicely.

Vasque Blur shoes at work in Venice

And even in Portland, while everything else I wear gets soaked, these babies keep my toes warm and dry.  Awesome.