A mother and her 7-year-old son left their Bridle Trails home for Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound Friday afternoon.

Scratch that: A mother and her 7-year-old son left their Bridle Trails home for Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound Friday afternoon — on foot.

The journey of noted Microsoft researcher Jaime Teevan and her son Cale Teevan is expected to take a week and is being livetweeted by Jaime. She estimates the two will walk an average of 18 miles a day, sticking near highways, staying nights in motels and keeping in contact with the rest of their family at home.

“What’s nice is that no matter how far we go on foot, they’re only an hour away by car,” Jaime said.

Jaime and her husband have four sons, each of whom they take on annual individual vacations. This year, Cale said he wanted to go to his favorite place in the world: Great Wolf.

“I explained to him that I didn’t really want to spend an entire week at Great Wolf, he said ‘Well, why don’t we walk there?’,” Jaime said. “His idea was to take the week walking there, have one day at the park and then his dad could take us back home.”

Jaime was excited about the idea from the beginning, she said, but her family was skeptical.

“(Cale)’s an athletic kid, so I’m certain he’s going to have an easier time with the walk than I will,” she said.

But Jaime spent the next six months practicing with Cale while researching safe routes and practices. They’ll be carrying a safety kit that includes reflective tape for their clothes and road flares for emergencies.

The most challenging portion of the trip will likely be Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

“It’s right in the middle of the route,” Jaime said. “Just in case that causes any problems with walking through, that day’s only 7 miles.”

In total, Cale and Jaime will have walked 120 miles by the end of this week.

The walk can be followed on Twitter account @jteevan.